Alleviating Loneliness Among Migrant Garment Workers in India

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With support from Development Innovation Ventures, Good Business Lab Foundation is building off prior pilots to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a low-cost mental health intervention that pairs 1,000 female junior factory workers with female senior workers across six factories owned by partner Shahi Exports, India’s largest exporter of ready-made garments. The RCT includes a control group and two intervention groups: one where partners meet a couple times a week to provide general social support and another where senior workers receive specialized training to help junior partners develop strategies to cope with isolation and loneliness. If effective, the intervention has the potential to improve the lives of Shahi’s 150,000 workers in India and Shahi will disseminate the results to its suppliers, partners, other companies, and other organizations working with India’s 120 million rural-to-urban migrant workers.

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Problem

More than 30 percent of India’s population are internal economic migrants who move from rural to urban areas for work, but lose important support networks when away from their homes. This separation may cause feelings of loneliness and social isolation among India’s millions of young migrants, and affect their health and ability to earn an income.

Solution

Evidence suggests that social isolation and loneliness can have sweeping negative consequences ranging from a reduced sense of well-being and happiness to impairments in cognitive function, physical health, and even mortality. Workplace programs that address workers’ mental health may help to increase worker satisfaction, retention, and productivity, benefitting both the workers and the companies that employ them, but evidence is scarce. Given the link between mental and physical health, this study will further explore impacts on reduced absenteeism due to illness.