The True Cost film/documentary unveils deep inside the tragedies of the fashion industry. The suffering the population in the developing countries such as India are enduring due to the need and want of cheap clothing and labour.  It taught me the devastating effects of the Bt cotton seed that results in thousands of farmers in serve dept with many of them resulting in suicide. As a pesticide intensive crop,  the chemicals used is also causing life threatening illnesses such as cancer.  The documentary follows a young garment worker who is struggling to make a living by working endless hours a day and earning next to nothing. She is unable to keep her daughter with her in the city due to  the dangerous chemicals therefore she is forced to send her away to a village where she can only visit around once or twice a year.  She speaks out and tells us viewers to think twice before buying cheap clothing, think about who made your clothes and how many people suffered in the process.

Due to constant drop in prices, the cost of labour is decreasing to an unbelievable amount. The garment workers and farmers who produce our clothing deserve a fair wage and fair working conditions, but to keep up with the fast fashion marketing that retailers have created, to keep prices low in the shops they must make the production prices even lower. In my opinion fast fashion is a large contributing factor to the devastating reality of the garment workers, we need to accept that it is not ethical to pay so little for clothing and us as a society need to re-think our shopping habits and re-evaluate where we source our clothing.

Image from the True Cost Film.