Piyusha’s project, ‘Not Cheap Labour: Women’s Lives in the Garment Supply Chains’, engages with the lives, struggles and histories of women termed “cheap labour” in the global supply chain of garment production. Women from low-income households form the backbone of the traditional chikan embroidery industry in Lucknow, India. The project foregrounds their experiences to examine the power and politics inscribed in the production network of an industry that has both local and international markets. Alongside archival research and analysis of policies and cultural representations, oral history practice will be used to co-create a narrative of workers’ experiences and, in doing so, reframe established understandings of global economic restructuring. 

First published: 16 September 2024

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