Our CEO, Jamie Agombar, joined forces with the Fairtrade clothing company Koolskools-Sustainable at the June ’25 NUS Trade Convention to explain how NUS charity members have given the female voice a real boost in the Indian garments industry by supporting an innovative women supervisors training project.

The Context

A lack of female participation in supervisory roles is a particular problem in the world clothing industry. Textiles factories employ a disproportionately high percentage of women in low-paid roles, and often exploit them whilst they work in appalling health and safety conditions.

Throughout India, very traditional cultural norms hold women back: gender stereotypes and bias; limited access to education and training; a lack of mentorship and role models; and unsupportive working environments. These barriers to women reaching their full professional potential play out in manyIndian rural districts, where deeply embedded cultural codes translate into women being repressed and under-valued in the workplace.

“Even though over 80% of garment workers in Tamil Nadu are women, their participation in supervisoryr oles is minimal, especially on the production floor” says Sreeranga Rajan (Ranga), CEO of the Koolskooks-Sustainable factory in India, in a special film about the project made for the NUS Trade Convention event.

Ranga’s factory, Dibella, is based in a very “traditional” region of Tamil Nadu, about 80 kilometres from Bengaluru. Of their 773 employees, 710 are from local towns and villages, and 54%of the employees are either single women or single mothers. Many of those single mothers, who may often be effectively ostracised by their families, would not otherwise have gained employment if not for Dibella’s admirably progressive, pro-active on-going policy of recruiting single women.  

Commenting on the challenges of getting his female employees into leadership roles, Ranga added: “We knew the benefits of more women in supervisory positions, including reduced absenteeism, better control on the shop floor, and overall better morale…

“But because nearly all of the women working in our factory grew up in a very conservative environment, it has been very difficult even to get them to come to work normally, let alone to become supervisors. We tried and tried various methods, but we couldn’t succeed in helping them to reach their true potential…”

NUS Charity Members Making a Difference

Over the past 18 months or so, ground-breaking work has been done to support those female garment workers at Dibella-India and challenge the status quo, and the results have been remarkable.

In early Autumn 2023 NUS services and SOS-UK, administering NUS charity member funds, joined forces with Andy Ashcroft, the MD at Koolkompany Limited (KK Ltd), an NUS-contracted consortium supplier trading in the sector as Koolskools/Sustainable, and through Andy with Dibella. An innovative year-long project was launched to train women supervisors in a bid to shatter traditional cultural glass ceilings.

The Impact

The training project concluded towards the end of 2024, with impressive results that surpassed expectations.

Before the women supervisors training programme, the factory’s production lines comprised 16 men and only 4women. Following its successful completion, the male/female ratio is now equal, with 10 men and 10 women supervisors working on the production lines.

The idea is that some of these newly trained and empowered women ultimately move through to positions of even greater responsibility. Some of the supervisors are being lined up to move to managerial roles in the near future, on the back of further envisaged training, and depending on the results of the current close monitoring of their progress in their new roles.

Hearing from the Women Themselves

In their feedback sessions at the end of the training period, here is what a couple of the successful female trainees said:

Manimegalai, newly trained Line Supervisor: “Before this program, I struggled to manage team dynamics and achieve production targets. The training helped me improve my leadership skills and confidently address challenges.”

Deepa, newly trained Line Supervisor-Operator: “The training gave me the confidence to handle responsibilities I never thought I could. I now feel equipped to take on different  supervisory roles.”

One of the newly trained supervisors’ Line Managers said the following:

Subramani, ProductionLine Manager: “The supervisors trained through this program have significantly improved our production processes and motivated the team to perform better.”

Sharing the Story with NUS Members

At the June ’25 NUS TradeConvention, SOS-UK’s Jamie Agombar joined Andy and his two excellent Koolskools-Sustainable student interns, Anna and Shubham, to offer a fascinating presentation to university leaders about the project, including film of the trainees being interviewed, both at the start and at the end of the intensive training period.

Speaking during the NUS event, Jamie of SOS-UK said:

“We are delighted that, usinga combination of a portion of the very modest NUS clothing levy and NUS charity member funds, we have achieved such a boost for female empowerment in such a notoriously exploitative industry – an industry where women are held back...

“…We are very pleased at the levels of cooperation with Koolskools-Sustainable, and through them with Dibella-India. It is great to see such powerful evidence from the women themselves that the training programme has had such a positive effect, not only in their professional lives, but also at home and in their villages.”

Andy of Koolskools-Sustainable added:

“…A major testament to the success of the project is that its impact is now even being felt beyond India’s borders, with some of Dibella’s other ethical client brands talking to their client factories in other countries about similar programmes. The collaboration with NUS Services and SOS-UK on this project has been second to none, and we are really thankful that the results of the programme have been so far-reaching...”

At the end of the factory video shared with the NUS Trade Convention audience, Ranga of Dibella talked movingly as follows:

“…Perhaps the most pleasing aspect for me personally is to see how the female trainees’  new-found capabilities are transferred into their personal lives….not just being seen in their homes but also in their entire villages as role models. This is a really proud moment for me.”

Andy of Koolskools-Sustainable would be happy to hear fro universities interested in hearing more about how Koolskools-Sustainable works with its client universities commercially and educationally, and can be contacted via email andy@koolskools4u.co.uk.