Workers in garment factories have for decades been only operators, earning just enough money to sustain themselves and their families back home. Even a thought of growing and taking responsibility never crosses the mind of the majority; those who do move up the ladder are generally looked upon with envy and considered as ‘management favourites’. Apparel Online Hindi (AOH) in its continuous effort to educate workers and fill the knowledge gap, which is the real reason for stagnation, recently conducted a Nukkadh Natak (street play) entitled ‘Pado, Aage Bado…’ (Read and Grow) at Noida’s Hosiery Complex, ‘A’ Block Park that comprises well-known garment factories, including Maral Overseas, Sahni Exports, Richa Global, B.L. International, Shahi Export among others.
The street play was an effort by Apparel Online Hindi to connect directly with the workers and make them realize the importance of education for permanent and professional growth. Enacted by the editorial team of AOH, the play drew a response much above the expectation of the team.
“Over two years of close interaction with the workers through our various initiatives, we have realized that workers are yet not aware of their true potential, nor do they have any idea of what knowledge of the ‘right’ kind will enhance their earnings and status, so we decided to enact our message ‘Read and Grow’ and the response was been overwhelming,” says Mayank Mohindra, Project Lead.
Dheeraj Tagra, Deputy Editor, AOH led his team with a well scripted play, which had deep understanding of what the situation is like on the shopfloor.
The impact of the message was so powerful that after the small play there was a stampede to get a free copy of the magazine and those who could not get hold of one were seen taking pictures of the magazine from their mobiles! Many of the workers expressed interest in the concept and admitted that with no natural growth avenue on the shopfloor, very few even thought about growth. Some said that those who were interested could not get literature in their local language (Hindi), so they were very keen to know how AOH could help them move up the ladder.
AOH has taken the challenge to awaken workers and regularly organizes camps in the Delhi/NCR region to distribute AOH free to the workers and interact with them on their problems and aspirations. Camps have also been held in Indore and Bhiwandi (Near Mumbai). In association with students of NIFT doing their graduation project with Apparel Online, short duration training sessions have also been conducted in some factories to create awareness among workers. The aim of all this is to educated the workers and equip them with the knowledge to help them grow both monetarily as well as socially.
The street play, an effort in that direction, showed two workers who started their careers together as operators, but one of them (Raju) becomes a supervisor in four years time, because he takes interest in acquiring knowledge, not of multiple-operations, but how the factory is run, what is the importance of systems and how best to improve productivity, etc. When the two meet, after a gap of four years, Raju explains to his friend that growth is in his own hands but he needs to have the will to learn and move beyond the thinking that he just needs to do a ‘job’ and for that reading AOH is the best option today. The strength of the message is clear from the fact that the AOH team distributed over 450 magazines and had to send many back disappointed.
