Jeyasre Kathiravel was a 20-year old Dalit garment worker, who went to work every day to support her family, just like you and I. Unfortunately, her fate was different. She was found dead on the 5th of January, sexually assaulted, and murdered by her immediate supervisor at the H&m supplier she worked for. 

Prior to her death, the H&M factory Natchi Apparel received several complaints about the supervisor’s behavior at work. Women garment workers said there had been instances of sexual harassment and violence in the factory - including namecalling, slut-shaming, bullying, beating, and assault. Despite their efforts, no action was taken by  Natchi Apparel.

1.How Natchi Apparel reacted to the death of their Jeyasre Kathiravel: Natchi Apparels is owned by Eastman exports, India’s fourth-largest export company for western brands. On the 29th of January, Eastman Exports brought a mob of 50 men who forced themselves into Jeyasree’s family home and demanded that they accept a cheque for around USD$7000 and sign documents they did not receive a chance to read.

2.Factors that added to the high level of gender-based violence in Natchi Apparel included:

• Absence of efficient Internal Complaints Committee that deals with sexual harassment in the workplace. 
• Lack of CCTvs within the factory workspaces
• Unbalanced gender ratio between supervisors and workers: 90% of supervisors are men while 90% of garment workers are women

3.How H&M reacted to the death of Jeyasre Kathiravel:

H&M, which has a history of gender-based violence in its offshore factories, continues to maintain its relationship with the supplier by the request of the labor union. Although they have claimed to closely monitor the work environment at Natchi apparel, it is only one of their many factories throughout their entire supply chain which is constantly subjected to workplace harassment. 

4.What we demand from H&M and Eastman exports: 

• To be transparent regarding their independent investigation into Natchi Apparel, and provide information regarding their findings.
• For H&M to use its power as a foreign buyer to ensure working conditions that do not lead to gender-based violence towards women, such as installing CCTVs in workspaces and employing a gender-balanced workforce.
• Ensure that an efficient complaint committee exists within factories that ensure privacy and protection for its employees. The committee must have communication channels across all of H&M’s supply chains.

Jeyasre Kathiravel- SAY HER NAME.