India’s iPhone factory is keeping women workers isolated

In January 2020, seven women from a small village in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district travelled to Chennai for a job interview. Among them was M Radha, then 21 years old. The daughter of farmers, she had studied until Class 12 and worked as a salesperson at a jewellery showroom in her village.

Radha had been to Chennai in the past to meet relatives but this was the first time she was traveling for work. A friend had told her that a company was hiring workers for a mobile phone manufacturing plant, and that the money was good. Additionally, the friend said, the company would provide employees with free accommodation and food.

“I was very nervous and felt that I may not be suitable for the job,” Radha said. “And initially, they rejected me. But I met the human resource team and convinced them that I could do the job.”

A few days later, Radha walked into a sprawling, glistening factory in Sriperumbudur, on the outskirts of Chennai. It had rows and rows of workers, most of them young women like Radha, bent over work tables on which were laid out tiny, metal parts. They were assembling iPhones – the most expensive and coveted mobile phones in...

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