Devi Gopika’s work day starts at Budhur, a village in Chengalpattu district, at 4.30 a.m. — to fix breakfast and make and pack lunch for her daughters and herself, before she boards the factory bus to PGL Exports, a garments manufacturer. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., she is on her feet, working on the assembly line producing high-end clothes that will be sold at a premium brand store in Europe or North America, at a price that is bound to be several times more than her hourly wage.
Ms. Devi is among the 5 lakh-odd women in Tamil Nadu employed in one of the upmarket “fast fashion” industries that churns out a wide range of garments. From socks and shorts to jackets and jumpsuits, an array of apparel is supplied to the who’s who of the readymade fashion industry in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe and Japan: Gap, Nordstrom, Polo, H&M, Uniqlo, J Crew, Victoria’s Secret, Indian Terrain, to name a few.
