Local Spotlight: Centring worker voices in India through film, dialogue, and advocacy
In this Local Spotlight series, we highlight how STITCH and its local partners are driving progress in the countries where garments are made — not just by improving working conditions and strengthening human rights due diligence (HRDD), but by ensuring that workers’ voices shape the process every step of the way.
Let's take a look at India, where our consortium partner Cividep is doing just that. With support from STITCH, their latest project is sparking conversations, influencing policy, and keeping women garment workers at the centre through film, research, and public dialogue.
From research to film: Garment Kelsa
Garment Kelsa documentary screening. Credit: Cividep India
Based on The Home and the World of Work study developed under STITCH, the documentary Garment Kelsa captures the complex realities of women garment workers balancing factory labour with unpaid responsibilities at home. Since its release, Cividep has screened the film at more than six venues in India and abroad, including to over 90 Mass Communication students in Bengaluru and at the German headquarters of lifestyle brand FOND OF.
Across very different audiences, the responses have been remarkably similar. Each screening has opened space for reflection and critical questions:
What changes when a woman becomes aware of her rights?
If production targets increase, does a worker’s income increase too?
What risks do women face if they join a union?
Are we paying a living wage, or just the legal minimum?
How can workers in our supply chain have a real voice in decisions that affect them?
And most often: How can we contribute?
Closing the feedback loop
This August, Cividep is taking the film back to the workers whose experiences informed it. Two major forums are bringing together more than 500 garment workers alongside trade unions, civil society groups, and government officials. The focus will be on labour rights, workplace safety, and the everyday realities faced by women in the sector.
“Screening the documentary during these events helps close the feedback loop,” says Sona Pradeep, Director – Programmes at Cividep. “By sharing the final product with the very workers whose lives informed the research, we create space for discussion and reflection. This step aligns with STITCH’s focus on worker voice driving industry action and moves us closer to Cividep’s vision of achieving worker solidarity.”
Turning insight into action
Informed by its research and interviews, Cividep also submitted a memorandum to the Government of Karnataka earlier this year. The ten recommendations respond to proposed amendments to the Factories Act and focus on key issues such as protecting the eight-hour workday, improving workplace safety, expanding access to childcare, and strengthening enforcement of labour laws.
As Garment Kelsa continues to travel, the most consistent response remains a question: How can we contribute? With support from STITCH, Cividep is building the spaces where that question can be meaningfully explored — with the voices of workers leading the way.