Following the tweet from Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren regarding alleged mistreatment of female migrant workers at a hostel in a garment factory in Uthukuli, Tiruppur district, officials said the warden was suspended on Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday, Mr. Soren tweeted a media report claiming that nearly 200 women migrant workers from Jharkhand who are working at a garment company in Uthukuli and residing at a hostel there are being “subjugated to inhumane treatment by employers.” Responding to the tweet, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami directed District Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan to look into the issue.
“Strict action has been initiated against the warden. We have inquired and provided all the support and taken care of them [the workers],” Mr. Vijayakarthikeyan said. He confirmed to The Hindu on Wednesday that the warden has been suspended.
Uthukuli police said that no case was registered in this connection and that the warden was suspended by the management for 10 days. A police officer said that there were only 17 women from Jharkhand, all of them in their 20s, who were staying in the hostel. The warden allegedly scolded the women while collecting their particulars, the officer said, following which they reached out to a media organisation claiming of mistreatment.
Officials from the Revenue Department and the police inspected the hostel premises on Tuesday. The women from Jharkhand were part of a group in the garment factory involved in the preparation of personal protective equipment for doctors for COVID-19 treatment, according to the officer. The officials assured the migrant workers that they could visit their native towns in Jharkhand after the end of lockdown period, the police officer said.