Textile and Garment Industry in India - Challenges of realising human rights and the impact of the Ruggie Framework

Abstract

Many textile and garment (T&G) workers are facing human rights abuses on a regular basis, especially women since they make up a majority of the workers. Most T&G factories are located in less-developed countries (LDCs), and India represents one of the top T&G exporting countries. The industry provides India with economic benefits and have been an important factor to their rising GDP. Over the years, the media attention on the T&G industry has additionally risen and it repeatedly reveals the occurrence of human rights violations. Poor working conditions appear as a normality in the T&G industry in India. However, the international sphere and consumers have started to push for changes to better the working conditions and wants to know what the conditions are where their garments are being produced. Some changes have occurred, e.g. the implementation of the United Nations’ (UN) Ruggie Framework introduced in 2008. The Ruggie Framework was developed attempting to frame the responsibility of the actors involved in the T&G sector; states and businesses. Since its introduction, human rights violations still seem to occur regularly in the factories. The aim of this thesis is first to assess what the challenges are for realising human rights in the T&G industry. Second, I will look at how the Ruggie Framework is operationalised to examine if the practices in the T&G industry in India is in alignment to the framework.