Child labor woes

November 15, 2007
India can run, but it cannot hide: Gap scandal highlights big problem
BY CHRIS NELSON

Shahpur Jat Village – a tiny, underdeveloped urban neighborhood on New Delhi’s south side – is best known among Indians as the location of the 1951 Asian Games Village and, more recently, an up-and-coming hub for the country’s fashion industry. But beneath Shahpur Jat’s hip veneer lurks a seedy underworld that is a poorly kept secret in New Delhi but virtually unknown outside India.

That changed Oct. 28, when the British newspaper The Observer splashed an undercover investigative report across two pages detailing child labor in a textile factory that produced garments for American retail chain Gap Inc.’s GapKids line.

The damning report alleged that children as young as 10 toiled in conditions described as “close to slavery” – they were observed working from dawn until late in the evening in dimly lit rows of garage-like tailoring units flowing with excrement from a clogged toilet. The children also told the newspaper that they were routinely threatened, and those that cried were hit with a rubber pipe or forced to take an oily sock in their mouths.

The revelations provoked outrage in Western nations, where people have grown accustomed to reading about India’s rise as an economic power, and rocked San Francisco-based Gap, which adopted rigorous social audit systems several years ago to weed out child labor and improve the working conditions in its production processes.

“We strictly prohibit the use of child labor. This is a nonnegotiable for us – and we are deeply concerned and upset by this allegation,” Marka Hansen, Gap North America president said in a statement issued the same day The Observer published its report. “As we’ve demonstrated in the past, Gap has a history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and our approach to this situation will be no exception.”

Gap has worked to hard to shed the “sweatshop retailer” image it gained in 2004, when it admitted to widespread problems – from unsafe machinery to child labor violations – in the thousands of factories it uses around the world to produce clothing for its retail chains.

The company detailed the findings in a 42-page “social responsibility” audit that year, which revealed some of its suppliers engaged in abuses like forced labor, physical punishment, coercion, child labor and paying workers less than minimum wage. Gap followed the report by severing ties with 136 vendors that it determined manufactured garments in deplorable working conditions, and in 2006 the company ended contracts with an additional 23 suppliers that were found to be in violation of the company’s own Code of Vendor Conduct and international labor standards.

Upon learning of the situation at the Shahpur Jat factory, Gap destroyed the garments that were produced there and canceled its contract with the vendor, which Hansen did not identify.

“As soon as we were alerted to this situation, we stopped the work order and prevented the product from being sold in the stores,” Hansen added. “While violations of our strict prohibition on child labor in factories that produce product for the company are extremely rare, we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers in the region to reinforce our policies.”

The scandal highlights the widespread problem of child labor in India, which the United Nations has labeled the world capital for child labor – the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, estimates that India is home to 40 million to 50 million workers under the age of 14 who account for roughly 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product – and raised concerns about large retail chains outsourcing their clothing production to India. Some of the largest Western retail clothing brands source their products from India, including Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., J.C. Penney & Co., Hennes & Mauritz AB (a trendy Swedish chain operating as H&M) and Mothercare, a British chain that sells clothing and other products for babies and young children.

The Indian government officially responded to the allegations contained in The Observer report Oct. 30, when Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath suggested at a global business conference in New Delhi that they displayed ulterior motives. Though he did not specifically cite the newspaper, Nath said the country is seeing “increasing efforts, driven by nongovernmental organizations, to come up with reports that show India in bad light.”

Nath also said that developed nations are displaying an increased tendency to erect nontariff barriers, some of which are based on campaigns that portray India negatively. “There will be pressure on India to take retaliatory measures,” he added, without providing any details.

Indian business leaders have reacted with similar anger. The day after Nath made his comments, Amit Mitra, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said in a speech at the Higher Education Summit 2008 in New Delhi, “Do you think they can do this [media coverage] in China?”

Child labor is an unregulated, gray area of the Indian economy, so statistics illustrating the scale of the phenomenon vary considerably. The Indian government estimates some 13 million of the country’s children are employed in agriculture, as domestic helpers, in roadside restaurants and in factories making glass, textiles, and countless other goods. Many charities and nongovernmental organizations around the world argue the figure is much higher.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based organization that tracks more than a dozen issues, puts the number of child laborers in India at 60 million to 115 million.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s 2006 international child labor report estimates that 4.1 percent of boys and 4 percent of girls ages 5 to 14 are forced to work in India. Most work in agriculture, but children are employed in many other, often hazardous, industries. Living conditions frequently are poor, and abuse is common. According to Bachpan Bachao Andolan (South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude), a New Delhi-based nongovernmental organization that fights child labor, children may be purchased for labor in impoverished villages of India for as little as $12.50.

Child labor laws have been in place in India for decades; among the earliest was the Children Pledging of Labor Act of 1933, which prohibits bonded labor. Indian lawmakers severely restricted the use of children in the workplace in 1986 when they passed the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act, which bans employment of children under 14 in factories, mines and hazardous employment, and regulates the working conditions of children in other employment. Most recently, the government enacted a law in October 2006 banning domestic help and hotel work by children under 14. However, it provides no protection for children between the ages of 14 and 18, who also face exploitation and abuse by their employers.

“If you look at their labor laws, on the Ministry of Labor’s Web site, the laws are spelled out very clearly, but it is very easy to find loopholes in them,” James MacNeil, senior office manager at Boston-based World Education Inc. said. “For example, India’s labor laws list the kinds of child labor that are prohibited, but agricultural labor is missing. Agricultural labor involves tending livestock and helping out on the family farm; livestock require a human body to follow them around and kids like doing that. All this gets back to the question of why so many Indian children are not in school.”

MacNeil lived in New Delhi recently for about two years, working on a World Education project that aims to get Indian children who were not attending school back into the classroom. Registered as a private voluntary organization, World Education provides training and technical assistance in nonformal education in more than 50 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as in the United States.

While it is easy for families and employers to circumvent India’s anti-child-labor laws, MacNeil said the bigger problem remains putting them into place and enforcing them. “India needs to do a better job implementing and enforcing its laws, because that’s where things get a bit dodgy,” he said, noting that Indian lawmakers have yet to ratify the “Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor,” a resolution adopted by the International Labor Organization at its 182nd convention that identifies bonded child labor as one of the “worst forms of child labor.”

Despite the extensiveness of India’s child labor problem, the country is taking steps to eliminate it, as demonstrated in the four days after The Observer published its story. During that period, New Delhi police carried out a trio of raids in Shahpur Jat that freed more than 100 children who were found working in miserable conditions:

•The afternoon of Oct. 28, police descended on the same factory that the newspaper accused of using child labor to produce Gap-branded clothing, finding 14 children in a single workshop. Children's aid workers and journalists accompanied the police.

•The next morning, police – acting on a tip from Bachpan Bachao Andolan – raided the factory again, freeing 28 children. Factory managers ordered reporters who were covering the raid to leave the premises, but not before they recorded images of barefoot, shirtless boys at work. One boy – 10-year-old Sheikh Ali – told police that he had been in training, without pay, for the last three months.

•Police carried out their largest raid Nov. 1 when they rescued 77 boys, 8 to 14 years old, who were embroidering saris and Indian wedding clothes in dingy rooms. Kailash Satyarthi, the founder and current head of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, said the boys were mostly from poor families in Bihar, India’s most impoverished eastern state, and had been brought to New Delhi to work in its small embroidery factories.
 “These children were trafficked and sold by middlemen. Such incidents show that holistic perspective is required in eliminating child labor,” Satyarthi said. “We firmly believe that mere cancellation of orders is not a solution. The business houses must ensure that the contracted manufacturing units do not employ children. They also have to regularly monitor their contractors and sub-contractors for the compliance of labor laws.”

The U.S. Department of Labor, which in 2004 partnered with the International Labor Organization and the Indian government to launch the INDUS project – a $40 million program to combat exploitive and hazardous child labor in India – has expressed its support for India’s efforts to end the practice.

"The US supports India's efforts to end abusive child labor and prosecute those who prey on children," Elizabeth Fitzsimmons, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, said.

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Gap addresses child labor abuses

November 14, 2007: SAN FRANCISCO,  Gap Inc. is pulling 50 percent of its orders placed with a vendor whose subcontracting led to children sewing some of the retailer's clothes in squalid conditions in India.

The penalties disclosed Wednesday wrapped up the San Francisco-based company's investigation into an embarrassing episode that attracted headlines around the world and renewed concerns about abusive labor practices in overseas factories.

To help address the problem, Gap said it would make a $200,000 grant aimed at improving the working conditions in India and would try to recruit retailers from around the world to participate in a forum next year to address child labor issues.

"We are determined to see some good come of this situation," Gap spokesman Bill Chandler said Wednesday.

Gap said it would also partner with the Global March Against Child Labour and other organizations to provide independent monitoring of hand embroidery and beadwork that is typically done in informal settings, not factories. Grants would help establish community centers in India where such work could be performed under better-monitored conditions.

The child labor concerns surfaced last month after the Observer newspaper in London reported children as young as 10 had been sold by their families to an Indian sweatshop. The children said they were sometimes hit with a rubber pipe and forced to work up to 16 hours per day sewing clothes, some of which were destined for Gap's shelves.

After the report was published, Gap terminated its ties with the subcontractor responsible for the sweatshop and promised none of the clothes made there would be sold in its stores. But Gap didn't take any immediate action against the supplier that hired the subcontractor in violation of the company's policies.

Gap's internal investigation concluded that at least one child was seen working on its product in an unauthorized factory in New Delhi.

"What happened here was without the knowledge or approval of Gap Inc. or, we believe, of the vendor," the company said in a summary of its investigation's findings. "Nonetheless, we hold ourselves and our vendor fully accountable."

To punish the vendor, Gap imposed a six-month probation that includes a 50 percent reduction in orders placed with the supplier. Gap declined to identify the penalized supplier, one of the company's roughly 200 vendors in India.

Last year, Gap stopped working with 23 factories that didn't live up to the company's standards. The company, which operates more than 3,000 stores under the Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic brands, employs 90 full-time inspectors to check out the conditions at more than 2,000 factories around the world.

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Child Labor Horrors in Fashion Industry: 'Hide the Shame' is the New Strategy

November 8, 2007

CLC Responds to Disturbing News

Washington, DC, November 8, 2007 — With news last Friday that an additional 76 child slaves were rescued from Delhi’s embroidery dens, the Child Labor Coalition (CLC) has called for immediate and responsible action by brands and retailers to end child labor and trafficking of children, as well as forced labor, in their supply chain and sourcing. The Global March Against Child Labor (GMACL), for which the CLC serves as its North American coordinator, estimates that as many as 5,000-7,000 embroidery units may be operating in Delhi, with each unit employing between 25 and 30 children. Many of these children are
victims of trafficking and bonded labor, a form of slavery.

Gap Inc. acknowledged on October 29, that one of its suppliers was using child slave labor. Children as young as 10 said they worked 16 hours a day for no pay, according to the British Observer newspaper’s investigation. The retailer issued a public statement and destroyed the products, which would have otherwise ended up on shelves at GapKids. While Gap owned up to the problem, committed to correct it, and vowed to bring its suppliers into full compliance with its standards, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) reports that a cover-up is being attempted by some other companies doing business in India. In essence, ITGLWF is hearing from some suppliers that they are being pressured to eliminate any paper trail between retailers/brands and Indian subcontractors, who may or may not be using child labor.“If this is occurring, and we obtain brand or retailer names, consumers will hear about it,” said Sally Greenberg, Executive Director of the National Consumers League and Co-Chair of
the CLC. “A ‘cut and run’ response is completely unacceptable, as is a ‘hide our guilt’ response. We expect companies to ensure there is no child labor throughout their supply chain.”

Gap Inc. recognizes this is not an isolated incident, nor is it a Gap-specific problem. Gap is currently working locally in Delhi to respond to the abuses, while also appropriately working with the GMACL and ITGLWF on the broader issues related to protecting children and developing a mature system of industrial relations between independent unions and employers.

Another key component rests in the hands of the government of India, which can and should be enforcing its laws on child labor and bonded labor and aggressively prosecuting employers found in violation of the laws. Through ensuring adequate resources and training for factory inspections, the government of India will send a clear message to the world that it takes protecting children from worst forms of child labor, including bonded child labor, as a priority.

“Other retailers must join Gap in acknowledging there is a problem in the supply chain in India. We do not support corporations jumping ship and moving these jobs to some other country with similar or parallel problems. That’s no solution,” said Darlene Adkins, CLC Coordinator. “Consumers are watching for a good-faith, credible response to ensure decent work for adults and no child labor. Any textile company that tries to cover-up, instead of an honest effort to clean up their abusive use of child labor, will pay a high price with consumers.”

About the Child LaborCoalition
The Child Labor Coalition is a group of more than 30 organizations, representing consumers, labor unions, educators, human rights and labor rights groups, child advocacy groups, and religious and women’s groups. It was established in 1989, and is co-chaired by the National Consumers League and the merican Federation of Teachers. Its mission is to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad.

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INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE, GARMENT AND LEATHER WORKERS' FEDERATION

November 2, 2007

'Stick with India in Spite of Child Slave Scandals' Buyers Urged

Global brands and retailers sourcing production in India were warned today not to cut and run from existing suppliers or from India but to work with producers and the authorities to build a culture of compliance with national and international legal standards. Quitting errant suppliers without attempting to bring them into compliance would rightly invite condemnation.

Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the global trade union for the sector, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation said the news today that a further 76 child slaves have been rescued from Delhi's embroidery dens is the latest in a series of child labour scandals rocking India's garment industry this week, putting in doubt its future and challenging the key brands and retailers who source there to find fool-proof ways to protect their reputations. 

Said Mr. Kearney, "Some brands and retailers may be tempted to quit. But cutting and running is no solution. Their next supplier is likely to be no better than the last. And there is only so far a retailer can run. Eventually they will meet a wall and the problem will still be there. Better to stick with the suppliers they know and help mould them into providing decent work for those they employ.

"Gap this week found themselves in the eye of the storm over child labour in their Indian supply chain", said Mr. Kearney. "But, the name Gap could have been supplanted by hundreds of other brands and retailers sourcing from suppliers who use sub-contractors in more than two dozen countries. All are vulnerable to seedy behaviour down the supply chain. Protecting themselves and those who produce their merchandise isn't easy but a few simple purchasing rules can lessen the risks.

"Firstly source from suppliers direct. Avoid the use of agents or merchandisers or the host of other names used by the hucksters who leech off the garment industry.

"Secondly, insist that production is conducted in-house without the use of sub-contractors. Only in exceptional circumstances should sub-contracting be permitted and then only after each specific sub-contractor has been approved.

"Thirdly, if the approved sub-contractor involves homeworking this should be conducted in specialised local or community centres properly supervised and with each worker properly registered. In India, the Self Employed Women's Association, a growing trade union for homeworkers,  is well placed to provide such supervision through the organisation of the workers involved.

"Fourthly, given the debate over the need for monitoring of workplace conditions it needs to be recognised that such monitoring from an external position is nearly impossible and is best done internally through a mature system of industrial relations in each workplace. Here representatives of management and workers take responsibility for overseeing working condition in a continuous manner, hour by hour, week by week, dealing with problems as they arise and usually anticipating issues of contention and dealing with them before they become problems.

"Fifthly, such a system operates best where the workforce is unionised. Thus, if brands and retailers really want to ensure decent work and avoid child labour and other exploitative practices in their supply chains they should do business only with unionised workplaces.

"Finally, just seeking reputation protection through codes of conduct is no substitute for decent work. Brands and retailers need to be more committed to their sources of supply. They need to publicly commit to remaining in countries where they are currently sourcing and to sticking with individual suppliers even when they fall short on working practices as Gap have done in India this week. In such circumstances they need to work with the supplier to help bring them quickly to compliance and only cut orders when the supplier refuses to change. In such extreme cases orders should be switched to other local suppliers willing to provide decent work",  concluded Mr. Kearney.

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The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation is a global union federation bringing together 220 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined membership of 10 million workers.
For more information, contact:
Neil Kearney (General Secretary) at 32/475932487 (mobile) or nkearney@itglwf.org
ITGLWF Secretariat at tel: 32/02/511.26.06, fax: 32/02/511.09.04 or office@itglwf.org
Visit our website at www.itglwf.org

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INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE, GARMENT AND LEATHER WORKERS’ FEDERATION

November 1, 2007

Politicians Must Drive 'Decent Work' in India's Garment Industry

India's garment sector risks lasting damage unless the government takes a clear lead in efforts to root out child slavery in the industry, the General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation, the global union for textiles and clothing, Neil Kearney warned today.

Speaking on France's TV Channel 24, Mr. Kearney said it was extremely disappointing that when nearly all the players involved were actively working to solve the problems thrown up by the discovery of trafficked children in India's garments supply chain,  some politicians were in denial mode - flailing around for scapegoats rather than joining in efforts to clean up the industry.

Said Mr. Kearney, "It is nonsense to talk about external sabotage and retaliatory measures against trading partners in the same week that police raids are resulting in the rescue of trafficked slave children and the
courts are publicly deeming these as "bonded labour". Such talk appears out of touch with reality and further endangers the industry's reputation at a time when it desperately needs to show that it recognises the
seriousness of the issue and is determined to tackle it head-on!

"Nobody wants to see India losing these orders and the jobs that go with them. Trade unions and others have pressed Gap Inc., the buyer involved, to stay with the offending supplier and jointly work to bring them into full compliance with Indian law and international labour standards. We are confident that they will do so and we welcome their commitment to work with the Indian authorities to support the rehabilitation of the children involved, getting them back into school while enabling their families to replace any lost income. Hopefully, in similar situations, all other buyers will make the same efforts and follow the same lead.

"Politicians must join this effort, indicate support for eliminating child labour by creating good quality education for all children and putting in place an efficient and effective labour and factory inspectorate to
oversee workplace conditions. This would provide a major boost to the industry's international competitiveness by sending a clear message that India means business and is determined to grow its textile and garments exports on the back of decent work", concluded Mr. Kearney.

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The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation is a global union federation bringing together 220 affiliated organisations in 110 countries with a combined membership of 10 million workers.
 For more information, contact:
 Neil Kearney (General Secretary) at 32/475932487 (mobile) or
nkearney@itglwf.org
 ITGLWF Secretariat at tel: 32/02/511.26.06, fax: 32/02/511.09.04 or
office@itglwf.org
 Visit our website at www.itglwf.org

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National Consumers League Press Release

October 30, 2007

CONSUMER WATCHDOG GROUP COMMENDS RETAIL GIANT FOR PULLING PRODUCTS TAINTED BY CHILD LABOR, BUT CRITICIZES ‘GAP’ IN AUDITING SYSTEM

Washington, DC, October 30, 2007 -- Just weeks away from the beginning of the busy holiday shopping season, a major American retail clothing company, Gap Inc. has been found to have within its supply chain a vendor that was recently revealed to have utilized child slave labor in the course of production. The National Consumers League, the convener and co-chairing organization of the national Child Labor Coalition, issued the following statement in reaction to news that Gap Inc. has dropped a line of products that were discovered to have been made in sweatshop conditions by bonded child laborers – a form of slavery - in New Delhi. Children as young as 10 said they worked 16 hours a day for no pay, and the original report, which appeared in the British Observer newspaper as a result of that paper’s own investigation, described the factory as a “derelict industrial unit … smeared in filth, the corridors flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet.”

“This incident of child labor abuse underscores how important it is that companies vigilantly monitor their total supply chain – from company-owned manufacturing facilities, to contractors, to subcontractors,” said Darlene Adkins, Vice President for Public Policy at NCL and coordinator of the CLC. “This is especially critical when you are doing business in a part of the world where there's high incidence of child labor and bonded labor. NGOs believe the number of child laborers in India to be at 55 million and there are approximately ten million child bonded laborers. NCL calls upon companies contracting overseas to be vigilant in their oversight of labor conditions and encourages them to use third-party, independent monitoring.”

“The National Consumers League commends Gap Inc. for its response to reports revealing bonded child labor in the manufacturing of one of its product lines. It is imperative for a company with Gap’s clout and size to act as it did, destroying the tainted products in question, rather than allowing them to make their way to store shelves. It’s the expected moral path, but it’s also the legal one,” said Adkins. “According to federal law, the importation into the US of products made overseas by forced child labor is illegal.”

“What happens next is crucial, both for the children affected by these practices, and for Gap’s public relations crisis. There must be an appropriate response regarding the welfare of the children involved,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “These young children must be immediately compensated for their work, despite the illegality of their employment, restored to their families, and a process of rehabilitation for these youngsters must begin. It is the responsibility of Gap, Inc. to work to prevent this from happening again and NCL urges them to work with credible, local nongovernmental organizations and trade unions.”

“When consumers learn that abuse of children is involved in the making of a product, they will steer clear of that product,” said Greenberg. “This should serve as a wakeup call for companies who are doing business overseas. American companies contracting with offshore vendors to manufacture their products are not beyond the watchful eyes of American consumers. These companies are responsible for what happens in their supply chain – whether its sweatshop or forced labor or product safety - and consumers will hold them accountable. Clearly, there were gaps in this retailer’s auditing system, and children are paying the price.” 

About National Consumers League and Child Labor Coalition

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America's pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad.  NCL convenes the Child Labor Coalition, a group of more than 30 organizations, representing consumers, labor unions, educators, human rights and labor rights groups, child advocacy groups, and religious and women’s groups.  It was established in 1989, and is co-chaired by the National Consumers League and the American Federation of Teachers.  Its mission is to protect working youth and to promote legislation, programs, and initiatives to end child labor exploitation in the United States and abroad.

Contact: Heather Horiuchi, heatherh@nclnet.org, 202-835-3323

or Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, 724-799-5392

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INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE, GARMENT AND LEATHER WORKERS’ FEDERATION

29th October 2007
Time to Scratch beneath the Surface to Root out Child Slavery

Gap Inc. took a global hammering at the start of the week as news emerged of child slavery in their Indian supply chain. But scores of other brands and garment retailers qualify for the same headlines by permitting sub-contracting in their sourcing in India and as many as twenty-five other countries, the global union representing garment workers claimed today.

Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) said, “Whether sourcing in Delhi, Istanbul, Jakarta or a host of other low-cost locations, brands and retailers permitting uncontrolled sub-contracting are likely to be no better than Gap and probably much worse. At least Gap placed a contractual obligation on suppliers to abide by a set of labour standards including a ban on child labour in their own premises and in those of their sub-contractors. Many others don’t even properly control their direct suppliers let alone think about sub-contractors.    

“While many of the leading brands and retailers have adopted codes of conduct aimed at ensuring basic workers rights in their supply chains,  these are usually only applied at direct supplier level and rarely at the myriad of sub-contractors and sub-sub-contractors which play an increasingly important role in the supply chain

“Thus the very worst workplaces escape oversight or control allowing gross exploitation, including the use of trafficked children, to reign.

“It is time for a general spring-clean of the global garment industry. Every brand and retailer should be working overtime this weekend mapping their supply chains and including every supplier and every sub-contractor followed by an urgent review of working conditions in every workplace in the chain. Nobody wants these jobs to leave India, Pakistan or Indonesia but workplaces not complying with national labour law and international labour standards must be forced to do so immediately or be dropped in favour of those providing decent work.

“This must be a wake-up call for all brands and retailers. They must begin to use only a dedicated group of compliant suppliers with sub-contracting being permitted only in exceptional situations and only after the approval of the brand or retailer placing the order.

“And while putting the brands and retailers on the spot let’s not overlook the responsibility of governments to enact and enforce legislation protecting workers’ rights generally and especially shielding children from the cruelty of exploitation.

“Only a few days ago one Indian government minister was railing against trade unions and NGOs accusing them of damaging India by whistle-blowing on child labour and other workers’ rights abuses. He and his colleagues would be better placed listening to trade unions and others demanding action rather than attacking them.

“The abuse of children in workplaces across India is a disgrace. Urgent action by the government is needed at the educational and labour levels.  India must begin to provide access to good quality education for all children and it must develop a labour and factory inspectorate capable of eradicating child labour in every workplace.