Jungle Sisters
by Mary Nyiri

Director: Chloe Ruthven, UK

Young women from rural villages in India dream of independence. Orlanda, a  long term resident of India who originates from Great Britain, has a solution.  The young women can learn to sew. She travels to the villages and recruits  women in their early twenties to work in factories that make clothing for large  Western corporations. Orlanda’s sister Chloe, a filmmaker, visits her in India.  She has a different perspective about what exactly Orlanda is doing.

The process of recruiting workers from the villages  is part of an initiative by the government of India in 2008 to train 500  million of the rural poor to work in the industrial sector. This policy  continues under Prime Minister Nerendra Modi. In the documentary, Chloe follows  best friends Bhanu and Bhutu as they are guided by Orlanda into their new lives  as seamstresses in Bangalore. These two “jungle sisters” live together with  other women in a large apartment block where their rooms are bare of  furnishings but the flush toilet is a real luxury. There are strict rules about  when the women are permitted to leave their housing and for how long, as well  as serious discussions about who has responsibility for young women alone on  the streets. The work is tedious. Their entire day is regulated. They miss  their families. Should they stay and work in the factories or marry? For most,  these are their only choices. So when Orlanda helps these women to work in the  factories, is it exploitation or opportunity? You decide.