Amazing Fashion of Women Doing Manual Labor in India
India has the most beautiful clothing in the world. Its embrace of color, drape, and texture makes the heart dance! What I didn't realize before our December teacher tour of India, however, was the fact that many woman in India wear these remarkable clothes even when doing arduous manual labor.
What this means is that wherever you go in India, there are female manual laborers -- bricklayers, hedge cutters, roadside merchants, farmers, and maintenance workers -- toiling in the sun and dust wearing colored clothing so splendid-looking that residents of any other country would wear them only on the most special, fancy occasions.
Our tour group was fascinated by these women, but our guide, Manu, urged caution. "Tell her we think she's amazing!" one of the teachers on our tour gushed to Manu after watching a female bricklayer (shown in the first photo) balance fourteen bricks on her head. "I can't do that," Manu replied, "because she's just doing her job, wearing her normal clothes, and your comment might seem rude."
So what are YOUR thoughts seeing these photos? Do you feel joy seeing the vibrant colors? Does your heart ache at the physical toil depicted? Are you shocked? Fascinated? Maybe... inspired?
I'm so curious to read your thoughts, experiences, and insights, below. Do leave a comment!
The author, Lillie Marshall, is a 6-foot-tall National Board Certified Teacher of English, fitness fan, and mother of two who has been a public school educator since 2003. She launched Around the World “L” Travel and Life Blog in 2009, and over 4.2 million readers have now visited this site. Lillie also runs TeachingTraveling.com and DrawingsOf.com. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter, and follow @WorldLillie on social media!
According to an old National Geographic, the brick workers have sold a kidney for their daughter's dowry, then husband rejected them because now they are not "perfect" - so they have no choice. The women even showed the scars where they had the kidney operation.
Oh my gosh! What a tragic detail! Thank you for sharing it. I will look up the article.
Ooh this also really impressed me when I was traveling there last year. So much beauty everywhere! I was also noticing women working on any area, mostly cause it is so much different to South America, where women normally don't work on the construction area.
These are the normal daily routine dress of Indian women. They feel much comfortable in "saari". You can say this one is traditional clothing and they adjust their self in this type of clothing and believe me they feel much comfortable in this as compare to Jeans and tops.
But young generation is following western culture. Now a days, Indian girl have many option to choose.:)
Thanks for your perspective!
It seems that all country of the world like to be colorful except north American and some European countries. Your pictures reflects the joy of people to be fill of color like life is. Wow.
These women are wearing, but great color. Then, the balance of bricks and basket of them, they are for off-the-shelf on their heads - the runway, have the attitude.I think Indians women is very hardwoking
Thank God India is in our itinerary! Can't wait to explore the culture and the scenery! I'm definitely curious as to what it can be like to become Indian and would like to find out if i can carry those baskets. Awesome photos too! Great job on this article!
so fierce!
They look so runway -ready with those delicate fabrics, perfect posture, and model- thin physiques! I wish I could stay that skinny, but then again I don't have poverty helping me out, amiright ladies?
Traveling in the northern Indian countryside I haven't seen a single woman above the age of maybe ten years old wearing anything other than the traditional clothes pictured above. That leads me to believe that it's not about fashion or femininity but a combination of two unrelated factors: 1) this is how women dress, and 2) everyone who can, works. So therefore, if a woman is working, she is doing so while wearing the clothes that women wear. I imagine a well intentioned compliment could be offensives because the notion of expressing oneself through style if clothing is not sn option, nor are several sets of clothing intended for specific frivolous purposes (dress up clothes) . The privilege of having these things and not realizing that they are abnormal and will forever be out of many people's reach is what is offensive. I imagine.
What wonderful colors these women are wearing. And they've got ready-for-the-runway posture from balancing those bricks and baskets on their heads.
Labor workers definitely don't dress like that in Spain! It's my hope that the bright colors and beautiful drapery give them a sense of pride and dignity, that even with a manual labor job, they can still be feminine and pretty.
It always amazed me how much these woman can balance on their heads.
It always amazing to me to see women who have such hard lives still remember their feminine side. Guatemala has it too. A lot don't care at all, but there are some women that you see in high heels and make up and it makes me respect them so much more.
and then makes me wonder why I can't do it for me :)
These are amazing pics but a bit sad. I love the way the blue-on-blue one is wrapped.
Agreed, on both points.
Wow Ms. Marshall!! These Indian women are pretty talented!!
I'm with you in that these women are amazing and can't get over the fact that they are able to balance so much so effectively and to do these jobs seemingly without getting their saris dirty! I also really appreciated the cultural lesson in regard to your comment. I was surprised to discover that what seemed like a thoughtful compliment would actually considered rude or awkward in India.
Wow! I would never be able to carry all of those bricks on my head! That is really cool. I also love those dresses. They are very beautiful colors!
Wow! My sister and I have always agreed that saris are so beautiful! I love Indian fashion. : ) this article was really interesting, and made me feel shame for complaining when looking at what these women had to do. However, they surely did it in style!
gorgeous colors!!
The fabrics of the saris are so beautiful and vibrant! Love.
What's absolutely fascinating to me is how their clothes manage to stay so clean. How is that even possible? I walk across the room and I look like I've been digging ditches :)
Hah! Same here!
That head basket of break is c-r-a-z-y! What an interesting perspective, kudos for that!