Young factory workers buy themselves health care, family respect, and a chance to mature. Garment work also contributes to a delay in marriage. Among girls 10- 14, all garment workers were unmarried, but only 54 percent were unmarried from the towns. Although many girls leave their family's home for a city job, they do not leave their family. In the city, most live with members of their extended family.
Traditions continue in other ways.
The adolescents anticipate marriage by saving for their dowries. They struggle with the ongoing, albeit diminishing stigma of work. Observing traditional norms is one way they accomplish this. In the garment factory, working conditions are hazardous, hours are long, wages are low. The young employees feel stress.