Child-and-adult-labour-in-the-export-oriented-garment-and-gem-polishing-industry-of-India

Child and adult labour in the gem polishing export industry of Jaipur
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food, pay the rent of their house, save money for festivals etc. Most adult workers had around 7 to
11 children. These workers sent their children also to the gem polishing industry to work at times
when the family faced financial problems. An interviewed Muslim teacher said that Muslim families
spend a lot of money on food and expensive items like meat. Moreover, according to the
Koran, the religious book of the Muslims, one should not take the interest of the money which
has been put in the bank for saving.
Some unit-owners complained about the middlemen and about financial problems. The
complaints were: 1. dependence on the expertise of the middleman who can easily pay a lower
price for the polished gem stones due to all kinds of reasons, and, 2. dependence on the
middlemen for the supply of rough stones and for the sales of the polished stones, 3. the unitowner
did not have enough money to invest in better machinery and tools. 'The Government', said
unit-owners, 'is only interested in investing in the big exporters, as they bring huge amounts of
foreign exchange into India'. Even if the Government was willing to invest in the manufacturing
unit, 30% of the money would have to be paid by the unit-owner himself. Only the bigger
exporters and money making manufacturers were able to do that. Some manufacturers said that
'the Government did not want to invest in machinery because that would mean investment mainly
in illegal units and in workers who are mainly Muslims'. Most of the unit-owners said that they
needed investments for purchasing rough materials and machinery.
It appeared, that the unit-owners, though it was possible for them to start a new manufacturing
unit and earn more money than the casual workers, still had many financial problems, which were
rooted in the structure and nature of the industry. There are no written rules and all negotiations
proceed verbally. A certain level of education is required to understand the market and the terms
of the trade. The majority of the artisans accepted their role as artisans, because they did not have
the above mentioned knowledge of the tricks of the trade to survive.
The wages of adult workers showed more consistency and stability than the wages of children.
Wages of children
A teacher at one of the Special Schools said, that 'the children who are working in the gem polishing
industry today are getting higher wages than 5 years back'. The same was told by people
from the industry. The higher wages made the children more interested in the work and the
parents in the occupation of their children because they get the money from the children.
The children who processed precious stones earned higher wages than the children who processed
semi-precious gem stones. But the amount of money which a unit-owner paid to the child worker
was highly uncertain and appeared to depend on his liking the child, if the child was a relative or
not, on the success of the unit in making profits and the number of artisans employed per unit.
During field visits, in one unit 4 children were found at work. One of the four children had some
years of experience but was still not paid, and another child, who had just started working on the
job, got paid an amount of Rs 600 per month.
If unit-owners did not make high profits, they often used the disguise of apprenticeship for not
paying the child workers, or only a pittance which varied between Rs 1 and Rs 2 per day for a
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