The members of various textile units are demanding a special cell in all textile units for women workers in order to ensure their safety. The demand was presented at a conference on the issues concerning women and adolescent workers in the textile industry, held in Coimbatore on Monday.

The associations also demanded that that the women hostels run by the textile units should be registered under the Tamil Nadu Hostels and Homes for Women and Children Act, 2014.

Claiming that young girls are facing grave risks in textile units due to the lack of safety measures, K. Narayansamy, member of an NGO which is working for the welfare of these workers, said that the family members are not even informed about the death of the worker.

“There are many missing cases of textile working women aged below 20, and most of the cases are not investigated at all,” he claimed.

Alleging that untrained young girls are forced to use roller-skaters inside the companies to work faster, he added that workers often meet with fatal accidents and the employers do not allow any trade union inside the factory to assess the situation.

“A study on the health impact of female textile workers in the city shows that 54% of them have general weakness, 68% of them have anemia, and majority of them suffer from breathing disorder,” he pointed out.

Expressing their concern over unreported sexual harassment of women in the factories, members of various associations also claimed that only a cell with a majority of women workers can avert such incidences.

They further added that the factories are not complying with the Apprentices Act, and workers are treated as apprentices for as long as three years, which is a violation of the law.