Apart from being a President of Garment Labour Union (GLU), Rukmini (41) is a well-known Radio Jockey (RJ) in Bangalore who earlier worked as a tailor in garment factories for almost two decades and her mission is still related to the garment industry, especially with the lives of the 6 lakh-people workforce in the city, 85% of whom are women. She wants to bring the change in the garment industry with her weapon – Radio. It is a story of a first-standard dropout Rukmini who is now a motivation for many others in the garment industry. Her radio series ‘Behind the Label’ is very popular in Bangalore, the city which has more than 1,000 garment factories – making it one of the biggest hubs for apparel exports from India. The show, going to complete its seven months, is aired on Radio Active 90.4 MHz, the only community radio station of Bangalore. She highlights various issues faced by garment workers on her show; be it labour right violations or domestic and social issues – from the use of new technology to developing textile standards and the need for fair trade to the merits and perils of unionization, from understanding labour laws to issues of sexual harassment and the need for social security, from occupational health hazards to career progression, from recycling cloth waste to meetings with micro-entrepreneurs – all are being discussed on her radio show by various garment workers.
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Having experience of working with Texport Overseas Group Company, she joined ‘Garment Mahila Karmikara Munnade’, a social organization of women garment workers, in 2004 and served as its convener till 2006. Her own struggle as a garment worker was quite hard as she faced suspension, humiliation, abusing, and struggled for her rights. She is trained to handle counselling, health issues, unionization, women’s and labour rights, labour laws, laws related to Employees State Insurance (ESI), Provident Fund (PF), and leadership and organisational management skills through reputed organizations/resource persons.
