Gender and Caste at Work: Evolution of a Factory Regime Under the Sumangali Scheme

The Factory Regime Approach

This study draws on the gendered ‘labour process-factory regime’ approach advanced by Ching Kwan Lee (1998). This approach represents a corrective of the negligence accorded to gender and other social identities in the factory regime approach pioneered by Michael Burawoy. Through the factory regime approach, Burawoy (1985) emphasised the increasing role of consensus replacing coercion as the characteristic feature of a capital–labour relationship in advanced capitalist economies under monopoly capitalism. Burawoy (1985) employs the distinction of the ‘labour process’ and the ‘production apparatuses’ to answer how labour regimes are constructed. The labour process refers to the technical and social organisation of tasks in production, whereas the production apparatuses refer to the institutions that regulates and shapes workplace politics. He further distinguishes between different micro-apparatuses of the production politics, termed as factory regimes, to be read along with the macro-apparatuses of production politics. Two basic factory regimes are identified: the despotic, representing early capitalism and hegemonic, representing advanced capitalism. In determining the regime’s character he stressed the nature of the state’s intervention in the lives of the workers.

Burawoy’s (1985) characterisation of factory regime, however, conceptualised the role of identities, that is, race and gender as subsumed by class relations practised in the work floor (Lee, 1998). Providing a major corrective to Burawoy, Lee (1998) claims to offer a ‘more nuanced and intricate relation among gender, class and ethnicity: they are mutually constitutive bases of power, and can all originate and be reproduced at the point of production, not just outside it.’ (Lee, 1998). She argues on the basis of her fieldwork that the supply and demand in the labour market and its social organisation provide more convincing explanations in explaining the nature of the factory regime produced (Lee, 1998).

The Social Regulation of Sumangali Scheme

The capital labour relationship in Sumangali Scheme is socially regulated in terms of caste and gender. Almost all the mills are owned by the dominant caste Gounders or Naickers whereas the workers predominantly belong to Scheduled Castes, most backward castes and backward castes. In collusion with the state, the industry consciously manipulates dominant gender norms and practices to structure a temporary, docile and readily available labour force. The prevailing norm that a woman’s place is with her family after marriage and increasing marital expenses are other factors that are combined in this case. The mills fashion a conservative protectionist contract with the families of the women ensuring not only their physical safety but also the regulation of their autonomy and sexuality. Driven by poverty and anxiety mostly over the increasing individual autonomy of the girls and incidents of inter-caste elopements, parents admit their girls into these mills partly and in some cases entirely as they readily duplicate the role of the family and community in checking these tendencies through segregation and punishments. ¹ But the mills and recruiters also promise young girls a better life and opportunity to earn their own income. While poverty and increasing marital expenses including dowry motivate parents to send their children, the desire to escape from both poverty and to enjoy individual autonomy from the caste and gender codes of the rural society drives the girls to the mills. ²

Slightly varying from the role of the state as pro-capital and anti-labour in a neoliberal period, Vijayabaskar (2011) describes the role of the state in Tamil Nadu as characterised by the disempowerment of labour at the work place and their empowerment as citizens in the political sphere. Thus within the neo-liberal paradigm, the role of the state in Tamil Nadu vis-à-vis labour is termed a corrective rather than an alternative (Vijayabaskar, 2011). With respect to the Sumangali Scheme, the state remained both formally and substantially complicit till the NGO (an alliance of both local and international NGOs) and trade union activism brought to the public alarming details about the work and living conditions in the spinning mills. This activism resulted in the state government setting minimum wages for ‘textile apprentices’ in 2007 later upheld by the Madras High Court in a law suit that challenged it. Though the government regularly revised the wages upwards, it didn’t implement and monitor the industry.

The exact interaction of factors affecting each individual mill and cluster thus varies with differing level of interventions by the two main actors, the state and the NGOs (both local and international). In the face of complete prohibition on associational activities, NGO activism remains the only actor with some effect. The NGO activism involves two pronged approach—one, awareness campaigns against the Sumangali Scheme in rural areas and two, pressurising mills in collaboration with international campaigns on ethical trade and corporate social responsibility through their big brand retailers in Europe and USA prompting the mills to subject themselves to NGO monitoring of conditions in the mill. While discussion on these interventions is not attempted in this article, it has to be mentioned that these interventions have resulted in some basic changes in the material living conditions in some large mills that are part of major supply chains. However, these changes are too feeble as the mills still enjoy impunity due to the state’s collusion. ³

In the case of the STC mill, it will be shown that mainly due to NGO activism the despotism that characterised the employer–labour relationship shifted to one of familialism in which ideas and practices imitating familial relations are invoked and employed as techniques of extracting compliance. The shift can be termed as one from a regime of despotic protectionism to familial protectionism. This is achieved through both material and ideological changes in the factory regime. This familialism attempts to re-mould the employer as the benevolent patron. These changes are also found to influence the approach of workers towards each other and employer. However, it will be shown that ultimately changes are limited in nature and reproductive of regressive gender norms prevalent in society.

Situating STC Mill

STC Mill in Sathyamangalam is part of the STC Mills Private Limited owned by an established Naicker (upper caste) business family. It claims itself to have one of the largest vertically integrated manufacturing capacities in India producing readymade knitted apparels, fabrics and yarns. Among yarns, it produces compact, mélange, carded and combed yarn. The total spindle capacity of STC comes to 353,088 spindles with a production capacity that comes to 90,000 metric tonnes per annum. STC began as a garment export unit at Coimbatore in 1984. The Sathyamangalam unit, established in 1995 with 6,000 spindles, is the first among the four spinning units of STC. The spindle capacity at Sathyamangalam unit was increased to 30,240 in 2000 which had been increased to 51,456 later to spindlage and modernised in 2011. Among stand-alone spinning mills, it is categorised as a large mill. ⁴ Totally STC claims to provide employment to 9,000 workers directly in all its facilities. STC Mill was one of the first mills to be brought to the public’s attention by the NGO’s campaign. One of the reports found that of the 9,000 workers almost 5,000 are employed under Sumangali Scheme. Child labour was also identified at one of its main units. The heavily guarded mill prohibits entry for outsiders, including activists. It was only very recently that the mill allowed social auditing by chosen NGOs under pressure from retailers.

The Floor Workers

Around 200 workers work on alternate shifts each week. The spinning siders form more than half of the floor workers in the mills. They perform two major operations—firstly, to tie the thread that breaks and bobbin removing which refers to removing the finished bobbins to the winding section. In most mills, siders are chosen based on their height and dexterity with fingers to tie the thread. As all the jobs performed by the female workers fall under unskilled labour, though workers are neatly assigned to specific departments, it is quite common for workers to replace each other when the occasion demands. The introduction of the technological changes in the spinning processes in the 1990s resulted in the increased speed of the spinning machines while reducing the skill required.

Women workers are immediately supervised by women guides, promoted from the ranks of experienced workers. They are further supervised by shift supervisors, who are invariably male across the industry. The technical jobs such as fitters and mechanics are also filled only by male employees. Male workers are also employed as pushers, movers and loaders/unloaders. However, there are certainly many mills where both men and women work as floor workers in the spinning and winding sections. Most of the young men employed in production, work in spinning mills are migrants from north Indian states. Apart from the production work, young women workers are also employed in clerical work in the management.

In STC, assigning and shifting workers between departments is largely decided by the supervisors. The workers are assigned to each department depending on their performance during training. Each worker is assigned two frames to handle. The working hours in the mills varies between eight hours and twelve hours. Since the mill’s inception there have been three, eight-hour shifts: day shift (6 am–2 pm), half night (2 pm–10 pm) and night shift (10 pm–6 am). Some mills, however, practise two, 12-hour shifts with comparatively less number of workers. However, formally there is no weekly holiday for an eight-hour shift worker. For a worker to gain a weekly holiday, she has to work an overtime quota of eight hours per week. This is, however, systematised in such a way that all workers have to work four hours each on the last two days of the week. The overtimes are performed with more interest and diligence by the workers themselves in anticipation of their coming holiday. In STC, an eight-hour shift is followed for four days a week which is then followed by two days of 12-hour shifts each.

Apart from these three shifts, there is a general shift consisting of maintenance workers. The general shift starts from 8 am and ends at 5 pm. The general shift is largely operated by men and women from nearby villages or workers who commute daily to work. However, the helpers to the chief maintenance staffs are girls staying in the mill’s hostel. They also replace other maintenance workers working in the day and half night shifts if needed.

There are two tea breaks, 10 minutes each, in the first half and the second half of the shift. The lunch break lasts for half an hour. However, most of the workers are expected to return in 25 minutes. There are similar half an hour breaks in the other two shifts. Workers go in small groups to have food while relievers, a class of exceptionally dexterous workers, replace them. A reliever replaces at least two workers at a time. During the day shift, the lunch break starts at 12 pm and ends at 2 pm in between which everyone in the shift should have had their lunch in batches. The other shifts also follow this schedule. Thus there is no break time in the mill work where all the workers in a shift congregate and interact.

Changes in Working Conditions

The most important aspect of the change in the factory regime in STC pertains to the change in the wage and lump sum payments. The post-training wage till 2006 falls within the range of ₹900 and ₹1,200 per month. The average lump-sum amount promised during this period was ₹30,000. There was no difference in pay scales for spinning workers and non-spinning workers. However by 2007, the monthly wages for a worker was increased to ₹1,500 and the trainees received around ₹1,000. The scheme amount also witnessed an increase of ₹6,000 totalling ₹36,000. The increase was primarily due to the Provident Fund the mill started to deposit for the workers. More substantially, this increase in wages was also accompanied by a waiver of fee for food and accommodation. By 2009, the wage finds a substantial increase to ₹3,000, excluding deduction for food and rent. And the lump sum is increased to ₹40,000. The guides were paid ₹4,000 per month in this period. By the end of 2011, one finds the wages of workers being increased to ₹6,000 per month for all workers; the wage of trainees also increases to ₹3,000. This trend in wages was reflected less in the lump sum payment as it was increased only to ₹40,000. Similar upward trend in wages is noticed in other mills also. Some large mills in Dindigul are offering ₹90,000 as lump sum payment as apart from monthly wages ranging between ₹3,000 and ₹6,000.

No holiday is provided on most festivals. So the workers end up working on almost all major holidays. They are provided leave only on three major festivals—Diwali, Pongal and the village festival. On average, around four to six days of leave is provided during these festivals. And irrespective of which part of Tamil Nadu they hail from they have to leave and reach back within six days. In almost all the mills, not returning in time, within the permissible period, is penalised by a deduction in wages and overtime. In some mills, taking extra days of leave is punished with extra work for a month per extra day of leave. There are cases where workers have been so exploited for more than six months for taking more than the stipulated days of leave.

In STC, in the despotic regime, the Arunthathiyar girls were not allowed to go to their homes on weekly holidays. Parents were also not allowed to visit their children on these days. According to the workers, the management implemented these restrictions because such frequent visits by the parents of one section of workers could generate a level of discomfort and longing among the another section of workers. While the migrant workers from other regions are granted a week’s leave for Pongal, Diwali and the local temple festival in April, Sathyamangalam workers are provided only four days.

In the specific case of Arnthathiyar girls of Sathyamangangalam, the wages at STC is far above than what they could earn in the fields and flower gardens. On average, an adult female agricultural labourer earns between ₹150 and ₹200 daily depending on the availability of work and the season. Another attraction is that mill work provides the girls with the opportunity to escape hard labour under the searing sun in the fields. But the lump sum payment remains the most important attraction as these days the expenses incurred during a marriage have undergone a sea-change. The earlier practice of bride price is increasingly being replaced with sharing of expenses along with dowry. While the total marital expense for a potential bridegroom ranges between ₹50,000 and ₹70,000; for a bride it ranges between ₹50,000 to ₹100,000. On average, the dowry includes one or two sovereigns of gold.

Lived Space

In most mills, the workers working 12 hours do not find much time to engage in any kind of reproductive activities. The wardens in the hostel make sure that the workers go to work irrespective of their health; elderly women aged above 40 are employed as wardens. The interview found cases of workers being physically beaten by female wardens. In one instance, the duty of the warden also includes inspecting the sanitary pads of the workers to monitor pregnancies. In STC, though such ill treatment is not reported, a clear change in the warden–worker relationship is evident. Till 2011, the hostel employed two wardens, each one working in a 12-hour shift. However, as part of the regime change, new younger wardens replaced the more elderly ones reflecting a more professionalism in their approach.

Even though wardens allot rooms, the hostellers are free to choose their room according to their convenience. The quality of the food after the mill waived the mess charges only got better. The betterment in the quality of the food was also a feature that followed other positive outcomes through the regime change. Workers who worked before 2006 found the quality of the food considerably poorer than what was given later.

The hostel in STC houses around 600 inmates. In comparison to respondents from other mills, the STC hostel provides comparatively better provisions. Each room, with an attached bathroom and toilet, houses around 10–15 residents. This provision stands in complete contrast to the sanitary conditions found in most other mills. Pathetic sanitary conditions emerge as one of the dominant grievances of the girls employed in this industry. A hostel in a Dindigul mill, as one worker explained, leaves toilets uncleaned for weeks and has a lack arrangement to dispose sanitary pads. The sanitary pads are dumped in the corner of the bathrooms. ⁵

The changes mentioned above in the living standards inside the mill contrast starkly to the highly impoverished conditions of living at home. Though food security and homestead lands are assured for these families, the community typically is absolutely landless in terms of agricultural land. Further, they also face discrimination in the implementation of welfare programmes at the hands of the dominant caste, the Gounders and Naickers who control these networks. While younger men increasingly shift to non-farm and migrant farm labour market, most Arunthathiyar girls only have the option of joining the irregular local agricultural labour force or the mills and the garment factories.

The Ideological Aspects of Transformation

Apart from the workers’ caste-class and gender position, the fact that most of the workforce has just finished their schooling and are still in their adolescence provides fertile ground for the management to impose disciplinary techniques. Mimicking school, group prayers before every shift is practised in almost all the major mills. In STC, prayers are held before every shift in the open ground in front of the hostel. A popular Tamil feature film song without reference to any particular deity or religion is played on the loudspeaker. After prayer, workers are made to stand in line and have to move towards the mill in line. Not much change is found in this practice as part of the regime change. The entire disciplinary regime within the workplace imitates the pattern of schools in several respects. The weekly meetings addressed by the supervisors and factory managers are interspersed with moral lessons for girls. The supervisor often assumes the role of a teacher for the girls. In despotic mills, these are also venues where the management warns and punishes workers mostly by naming and shaming. Also, regular yoga classes are held once in a week where every shift worker has to participate. These classes teach various techniques to control stress, anger and frustration in the life inside the mill.

Constructing Familiality

Familialism is found to be practised by several export-oriented factory sites as part of their factory regimes. Lee’s (1998) study covering women belonging to the same company but located at two different locations found each practising two different factory regimes. In a Shenzen factory in mainland China, in which migrant young women are employed, a form of despotism is practised. But in an older factory in Hong Kong, married women with stable employment are found to be employed and here a form of familial hegemony is practised as workers are provided the freedom to attend their gendered family responsibilities. Fictive kinship is practised between managerial, supervisory and floor workers in the Hong Kong factory. A similar attitude is also perceived among women working in the Latin American textile industry (Acero, Minoliti, Rotania & Vichich, 1991). Wolf (1992) in her study of Javanese factory girls in the electronics industry explains how the capitalist enterprises disguise their self-interest in the form of benevolent paternalism and familialism. She focusses on expressions of patriarchy and the various means through which it is accommodated, produced and reproduced through the capitalist enterprise and the factory regime (Wolf, 1992).

In STC, the idea of the ‘mill as one family’ is successfully employed to extract obedience and consent from workers. However, this should not be construed as already given for the familial discourse itself seems to have evolved over a decade due to specific discursive techniques employed by the management. One fails to see any such sympathies for the mill management among the pre-2007 workers. In the despotic regime, the workers found themselves exploited and expressed hatred towards the supervisors and managerial staff. The factory owner rarely made visits to the mill and did not occupy much relevance in the accounts of workers. Workers expressed anger and dismay at the way supervisors treated them, exemplified in the monitoring of the time each worker spends in toilet. And indifference characterised the relationship between workers and hostel warden. However, the gradual regime change is accompanied by changes in discursive practices whereby the owner or chairman of the mill became appa (meaning ‘father’) and the hostel wardens became warden amma (mother). Also, the perception of supervisors among workers changed to one of team leaders.

From FM Sir to Owner Appa and Warden Amma

For the earlier workers, the only source of compassion used to be the elderly FM, Sir (factory manager). Often workers recollected him as a father figure. In contrast, the owner barely made visits to the factory floor. There were no remembrances of any pleasant interactions with him. The only time he is found to make a visit and interact with the workers was during the festivals of Diwali and Pongal. As part of Pongal celebrations, sports and dance events were conducted in the grounds adjoining the hostel. Even on this occasion, the owner used to only inaugurate the programme and leave.

Even during the transition period, the workers in the STC got to see their owner only once in a month. However, as part of the changes brought about from 2007, it is found that the mill celebrates the birthday of the owner with a grand party. The workers are provided holiday, and a special feast is served to the workers. The owner joins the feast with his family and eats food sitting along with the workers. According to an interviewee, the owner claims that he has a special relation with the Sathyamangalam mill as it is his first mill. Further, the workers have begun to address the owner as appa. The guides and supervisors encourage workers to address the owner as appa. An image of benevolent patron has developed about the owner in the process of the regime change. The owner now makes frequent surprise visits to hostels to check the quality of food and hostel facilities. Moreover, on many occasions, the owner is found to share food with the workers in their hostels. The most vocal expression of gratitude towards the owner was echoed by those who were promoted to positions of reliever and recruiters.

STC Archana observed:

The owner was like a father for us. He used to eat with us. He used to check the quality of the food whenever he visited the hostels. I will never forget the good things the mill has done to our lives. They wanted me to work more in the mill when I finished my scheme period. I will go back to the mill as soon as my child grows up.

It is not surprising that workers who have benefited more from the mill have found reasons to shower the owner with platitudes. However, if not to the same extent several other workers, if not all, also echoed similar observations. The fact that the lump sum payment is seen as a timely help for one of life’s most important events, marriage, adds to the legitimacy of the regime and the associated paternal benevolence of the mill owner. The owner then partly plays the traditional role of a father. The practice of calling the owner ‘the father’ is a major ideological figment in constructing the familial discourse in the mill considering the tender age at which they join the mill. The shift to hegemonic practices and construction of benevolent patronage hints at the reproduction of a newer variant of a mai-baap (xxx) relationship mediated by an intersection of caste and gender.

The change in the factory regime is more pronounced in the hostel than in the factory floor. The most significant are changes in the nature and functions of the wardens. The earlier wardens were middle-age women, aged around 40 years, and were largely remembered as indifferent. In 2011, wardens, aged between 25 and 35, were appointed. There are now four wardens staying in the hostel. Three of them are between 25 and 30 years while one between 30 and 35 years. Earlier, there was no custom in the mill among the girls to call the warden as amma (mother) even though they were old enough. The new wardens, though sometimes younger and often only slightly elder than the girls, have to be addressed as ‘warden amma’. The workers also abide by this new practice introduced by the management. However, this change in nomenclature does not translate into any parental authority of a fictive nature over the workers. According to Roobini: ‘We call them warden amma because that’s how everybody has started calling them. We do not call them amma. Nor are we expected to call them so. We only call them warden amma. They are also nice people.’

Apart from the wardens, there is one resident nurse in the mill. In the despotic regime, the role of the nurse in the hostel was to ensure that no worker stays away from work if she can be treated by the nurse. The role of warden, in this case, is more crucial as she is supposed to coerce the workers to take medicines from the nurse and get them to work. Later, as the hegemonic regime slowly unfolds, the workers are allowed to rest if they are proved ill by the nurse.

Sisterhood and Local Ties

As discussed earlier, workers are also continuously engaged in negotiating between their own aspirations and the demands of the family while working in the mill. The oppressive regime in general is found to produce sisterhood and friendships among the floor workers though workers find less time to interact with each other. One major feature that characterises the response of all interviewees that corroborates these bonds is the absence of any form of major divisions among the workforce in the mills. The following responses provide snapshots of the responses of the workers to the question as to of what kinds of groups or gangs workers form in the work floor and hostels:

Archana of Madurai:

Sir, we do not engage in any groups or gangs. We girls know how to adjust. There are some who do not adjust. However, there are no big gangs in the mills I worked. I myself had a gang around me. However, they are all friends. We play mischief on each other. There are other gangs in this manner who will keep playing mischiefs or gossip but we do not form any kind of big gangs. Only these Hindi girls form groups and they stay together.

Amutha (Pudukottai):

We are there to work and make money for our family. Why would we form groups and waste time? We have only three years to work and make money for our family and marriage. There are senior girls who carry their own groups. Usually, people from the same room stay as a gang. We depend on each other for any help. Moreover, people from the same localities stay together in rooms and take care of each other. But they also do not form any gangs.

All the other respondents expressed similar views. These responses reveal that the protectionist regime certainly results in associations among workers based on localities. However, these responses also reveal that such associations are also limited in their extent. One of the reasons for this lesser density of localism and higher prevalence of friendship groups lies in Amutha’s answer. The workers do not have much use of such localistic ties unlike in the Chinese case where these ties are put to use in finding alternate factories for work. During the hegemonic regime, one does hear about groups of women appearing in the mill and bargaining about the terms and conditions of work before joining the mill. Though such groups do exist, they do not exist to such an extent that they can influence the larger discourse around the Sumangali Scheme. No such footloose groups are found to exist among the Arunthathiyar workers who were interviewed. These qualitative changes in relationship with the management, however, occurred while restrictions on physical mobility are kept in check with limited reforms.

Relaxations in Physical Mobility

The most significant development as part of the shift to a hegemonic regime refers to the change in the frequency of visits parents are allowed to make to the mill. As part of the regime change, the restriction on the parent’s visit was relaxed for local workers. It was noted that earlier the visits of parents of local workers were restricted on the premise that such visits encourage discomfort among other workers and might lead to a quick turnover of staff. Often it was seen that fights would erupt between workers and their parents and the mill management. These conflicts resulted in estranging the Arunthathiyar girls. From 2012 onwards, workers are allowed to visit their families on their weekly leave but are expected to return to the hostel latest by 6 pm.

The question of physical mobility is not only restricted to parents’ visits. As already mentioned one of the major attractions for girls to choose millwork is the opportunity to explore living with peers and enjoying opportunities to see places otherwise they are deprived. For the girls interviewed in the research one common experience is the restrictions the girls face in the villages, both economically and culturally—opportunities to visit other places and access urban shopping centres. Under these circumstances, the stories shared by the mill girls when they visit their villages present an enticing image of opportunities.

In the case of STC, the mill takes each batch of workers out on their weekly holidays. In the despotic regime, the girls were taken out only once in a month. The mill had a small but inadequate shop inside the mill to cater to the daily needs of the workers, including cosmetics and stationary articles. Much data are not available on the transformation of this shop except for the fact that the shop has also seen now an expansion in scale and variety. Apart from this shop, a juice shop and a beauty parlour are functional now. ⁶

In the hegemonic familial regime, once in a month, the mill takes the workers to a departmental store in the heart of Sathyamangalam town owned by another rich businessman in the town. The workers are provided two to three hours for shopping. The workers are monitored from the time they step down from the bus till they come back. The workers are accompanied by the driver and two staff of the mills to monitor them. They are allowed to visit beauty parlours and doctors in this trip within the stipulated time. These visits also happen to be one of those opportunities when girls escape the mill. Till around 2011, the girls were allowed to visit the department store wearing any ‘modest’ apparel. However, following some cases when girls slipped away from the monitor’s supervision and ‘escaped’, the mill has mandated that they the mill’s uniform during these shopping excursions. These regular visits are also an occasion for workers to consult doctors for ailments that were neglected in the mill.

The large spinning mills generally seem to take the girls to tourist places at least once in a year. The workers in STC have been taken to visit tourist places in and around Sathyamangalam such as the Kodiveri Dam, Bannari Amman Temple, a famous shrine situated near the Sathyamangalam reserve forest, and Bhavanisagar Dam, a large dam constructed across the Bhavani River. Apart from these regular sites, once in a year, workers are also taken on tours to hill stations such as Ootty, Kodaikanal and even on one occasion to Kerala. In such trips, the drivers and other supervisors do not restrict the workers. These visits are strictly meant as stress busters for the workers. The driver interviewed narrated that the girls engage in pranks in these trips passing comments on the passer-by men on two-wheelers. In the accounts of the workers, one finds extreme enthusiasm in describing these visits. However, the temple dominates the list as workers are often taken to local temples especially Bannari Amman temple, sometimes thrice a month. Temple going is considered to be an essential attribute of femininity in Tamil society and as the research attests the industry amply employs this gendered religious practice as part of its disciplinary regime. In the hegemonic regime, Christian workers are also taken to churches on Sundays. On the other hand, for the workers temple provides the only opportunity for them to step out of the mill, a request which employers find difficult to resist.

Caste in the Mills in Sathyamangalam

While caste structures capital and labour power, the management of STC prevents any practice of direct caste discrimination against and between the workers. As earlier mentioned, there were instances where the managers categorically prevented caste discrimination among workers in the mill. Caste in STC, however, still exists and functions in building fictive kinships among Arunthathiyars. Community, in this case, becomes one of the key resources Arunthathiyar girls depend upon in negotiating the demands made on them by the factory regime. Even after the shift to the hegemonic regime, the salience of community is found to thrive. An overt but light Arunthathiyar solidarity, based on shared language and community, is practised in the mill by the workers. The workers in STC recalled that there are three rooms in the hostel which are largely and sometimes exclusively inhabited by Arunthathiyar girls.

In the accounts of the earlier workers, this identity bondage is highly cherished. However, this bonding has less relevance today as most workers are from nearby areas from where their parents come to visit them once or twice in a month. Yet this phenomenon begs an explanation: what accounts for their preference to stay together and form friendship groups? To answer the question one should examine the comments of the interviewees about their own community and self vis-à-vis others.

The friendships they form inside the mill are not completely void of content. Most workers hail from the same or adjacent villages. Most of these girls have some distant kinship relations between them as they belong to the same caste living in the same region. This is not to infer that native place and kinship ties are naturally preferred by the workers. The fact that not all the workers from the same village who joined together complete the scheme period contribute to the salience of the group formation between distant relatives. Shared language, as Arunthathiyars speak a distinct dialect of Telugu within the community, and culture make such grouping immediately possible once one enters the mill. And the mill encourages these girls to stay together. There is a general tendency to stay together among Arunthathiyar girls with each other than other girls. This does not mean that Arunthathiyar workers do not engage with other workers. It often happens that out of seven workers from a village only two remain to finish the work till the scheme period. This necessarily means that workers keep forming ties with other Arunthathiyar workers and workers from other regions and castes. In contrast to Arunthathiyar workers of Sathyamangalam, other workers, including other dalits, stressed the sisterhood that forms among Sumangali workers.

The management tactics to encourage such groupings can be seen by the management practice of branding each shift with titles resembling cricket teams—Sathy Super Kings, Terror Tigers and Golden Queens. Of these groups, the Sathy Super Kings consists exclusively of girls from Sathyamangalam. In STC, Sathyamangalam is almost synonymous with Arunthathiyars. Most Arunthathiyar workers are grouped by the management in a single shift throughout their stay in the mill.

In addition to factors outlined above, Arunthathiyar girls perceive themselves to be different; maybe a little inferior as compared to the other girls. A major point for their difference emanates from their language. They all speak a dialect of Telugu which no other worker in the mill understands except for the sanitation workers. Most Arunthathiyars of the despotic regime also see perceive themselves as something lesser in terms of their fashion sense and use of cosmetics. This self-perception comes from the fact that among the workers, Arunthathiyars constitute socio-economically the most marginalised. Compared to other workers, they spend the least on themselves handing over a better part of their salary to their parents. The Arunthathiyars women consider themselves thrifty and devoted to their families as compared to girls from other regions, such as Madurai and Thirunelveli who spend more on personal consumption. However, the self-perception of Arunthathiyars girls of the later regime is more complex. Many girls assert that they are as stylish and free with money as the other girls. The most vocal among these is Archana, a reliever, and a recruiter:

Earlier Arunthathiyar girls were very old fashioned; most would wear only half-saris. But now Arunthathiyar girls are among the most fashionable among the workers. The amount of money they spend on themselves has also increased than earlier.

The responses of other workers of the hegemonic regime also expressed similar opinions with respect to the control they have over their income. Earlier, when they spent only ₹500 on themselves, now with the increase in the salary to ₹6,000 some have begun to spend between ₹1,000 and ₹1,500 and give the rest to the family. And among the new consumption pattern, clothing, especially jeans, and cosmetics occupy a major portion, a trend hitherto observed more among non-Arunthathiyar workers. However, still most of the Arunthathiyars are spending less than their peers from other regions. Roja who finished the scheme period in 2012 always kept only ₹500 for her expenses and gave ₹5,500 to the family every month. When she received the lump sum payment of ₹45,000, she and her family decided to spend the money on repairing and extending their 16 x 10 metre-house. Similarly, it is found that out of the five workers who received the lump sum payment from STC, all belonging to the hegemonic regime, three have married while the rest used it to extend their house.

Limitations on Collective Action

With the total institutions these mills form within; with the collusion of the state and the help of the gender norms, the avenues for collective action is almost non-existent. Quitting remains the only option for most workers. However, attempts to quit mean facing a series of reactions—from coaxing to threats. Most girls succumb at one stage or another. How much these actions pose challenge to the mill is a question. Quitting mainly affects the industry if the workers decide to quit earlier. Quitting after a year or two in fact could be beneficial to the mills. It is an established practice in the industry that dismissing workers on false premises saves the management from paying the lump sum payment. Mills have been known to falsely accuse girls of fooling around with male workers to throw them from the job. This accusation also forces the family to take the girl back home without any protest to prevent a ‘loss of honour’. As the illegal contract denies payment of the lump sum payment without the completion of three years, approaching state institutions, such as the police or local political leaders, are the only options left for them: all these are highly improbable options but for some families they have been successful in some cases such as the STC as it is already under some degree of scrutiny by civil society. While workers jumping over walls is a regular feature in the industry, in STC such attempts are foiled as the mill is surrounded by walled farmlands owned by the mill.

The interviews with workers reveal that the millwork marks a transformation in the consciousness of most of the workers. The girls remember how innocent and ignorant about society they were before joining the mill. They testify that mill work has made them more courageous and brave. Some opined that work in the mill has made her comfortable and tactful in interacting with men. Except for a negligible few most ex-workers showed excitement in sharing their experience in the mills. Some interviewees even shared information about their romantic life. Even though some mistook the author of this paper as an NGO worker interviewing them to provide them financial assistance, most showed genuine excitement in sharing their experience. More importantly for many workers, mill work had been an experience in taking responsibility for oneself. In the words of Vineetha of Newman Cotton Mills:

I was very ignorant and innocent before I joined the mill. But the mill completely transforms you. Or else people will miss no chance to exploit you. If you show yourself as innocent, they will pick you up for more and more work. And also you have to negotiate with lots of people in the mill and hostel. There is no other way than becoming assertive and talkative.

These narratives reveal that for many ex-workers who join the mill in their adolescence the labour relation and life in the mill constitutes a process of coming of age. The narratives show that workers are very much aware of their exploitation by the management. However, the scope for resistance is very much limited for these workers considering the odds they have to face. The fact that most of the workers join in their adolescence make them submissive to the authority of both parents and the management. The situation gets compounded by the lack of alternatives available for the girl workers especially if one is migrant and more if one is inter-state migrant. This problem is felt lesser by those for whom alternative employments such as garment jobs are available. For workers who decide to stay and complete their tenure, by the time one finishes two or three years in the mill, the chances to learn other employment such as tailoring also grows thin. Also by this time the families would have begun arranging marriage for the girls. All these factors combine together to result in a workforce that is highly restricted in asserting themselves. While the workers haves shared raising demands in small groups in hostels and workplace and achieving minor changes, collective bargaining is highly exceptional. For example, a mill in Virudhunagar has to be closed down following mysterious death of a girl. However, many workers rejoined as the mill was relocated from the earlier site. In STC, the mill was witness to a rare one-day strike over prohibition of mobile phones in 2009, rare not only within the mill but also in the industry.

Mobile Phone Strike

STC for long has prohibited mobile phones in the mill though one or two workers used phones without the knowledge of the wardens. The workers had to use coin-operated telephones to talk to their parents. Before that was introduced a telephone was provided at the security guard. The security guards or wardens used to overhear the conversations to make sure that the girls are speaking to no one other than their parents. In 2009, once the workers struck work with the demand to remove the ban. However, the management refused to accept their demand. One morning, the day shift workers from other regions held a discussion and informed the warden that they will not go to work. The strikers also managed to mobilise workers of other shifts to strike work. In fact, as one worker recollects, for some time before this strike, there were several instances of girls declining to join after knowing about the ban on mobile phones. After workers struck work for two consecutive shifts, the management yielded and agreed to their demand. A clear leadership did not emerge amongst the workers nor was anyone punished by the management for the strike. However, from the interviews it emerged that the role of the Arunthathiyar workers was limited only to participation while the migrant workers from southern Tamil Nadu played a more prominent role. Though the strike was successful, none of the workers who joined the mill after 2011 remembered or were aware of the strike being prevalent in the mill pointing probably to the efficacy of the hegemonic regime.

Conclusion

This article has attempted to show, in line with Ching Kwan Lee, that production of a factory regime is a socially mediated process by identities such as caste and gender. Though primarily structured around the tension between dominant gender norms and an urge of the girls to escape oppressive caste and gender codes of the rural society, the Sumangali Scheme successfully reproduces the earlier, re- establishing gender roles and the practice of dowry. The regime transformation in STC exposes the limits of NGO activism as the mill introduces changes while reproducing itself as a benevolent patron and re-establishes the dominant gender codes with the consensus of the workforce. What emerges vividly in this process is the collusive role of the state in the labour regime proven by the impunity enjoyed by one of the most scrutinised mills in Tamil Nadu. The study beckons further questioning of the gendered nature of the welfare regime in Tamil Nadu.