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

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Indian regulations and initiatives related to child labour: Government and NGO
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GDP for education and 50 per cent of this amount for primary education by the year 2000 42 .
Recently announced programmes of the state governments of Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan
concerning respectively, child labour in the hosiery industry in Tirupur and the synthetic gem
polishing industry in Trichy (both in Tamil Nadu) and child labour in the (semi-)precious gem
polishing industry in Jaipur (Rajasthan), will be treated in the respective chapters.
Concluding from the above, up till now only a small number of child labourers could be freed
from certain industries through the action-programme which was launched in 1987. The majority
of the child labourers still work or start working because education in India has not yet changed
and is not able to prevent children from going to work. The hope is on the new government, for
education is the main solution to end child labour. But it should be implemented in combination
with the active involvement of the local community: teachers, parents, labour unions, NGOs etc.
2.2 Action in South Asia (India) against child labour in the carpet export
industry: South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) and
Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) in India
(i) The South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS)
India's carpet industry, one of the major foreign exchange earners, has been the target of much
publicity and action against child labour. Concentrated around the town of Mirzapur and Bhadohi
in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the carpet business employs between 100,000 and 300,000 children.
Many of the children get 'bonded' early in life to repay a family debt, and work under appalling
conditions.
SACCS is a network of NGOs in South Asia which campaigns against child servitude in the
carpet industry, but also in the glass industry and other industries. The coalition consists of
around 250 NGOs from India and organizations from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
In India, SACCS has been pressurizing the government and politicians to take their responsibilities
in the struggle against child labour. Besides, SACCS has actively involved the media,
labour unions, student organizations and religious leaders in its campaigns against child labour.
Activities like foot marches through areas with a high concentration of child labour has made the
general public aware of the issue. On request of parents, SACCS has liberated around 27,000
child labourers from the carpet, glass and other industries during many years of intervention. A
part of the liberated children is admitted in their rehabilitation centre, called Mukti Ashram or
liberation school, located near New Delhi, where they get shelter and education.
SACCS has developed an independent, voluntary certification system, the 'Rugmark', together
with the Indo-German Export Promotion Council (IGEP), representatives of the carpet trade,
UNICEF and the ILO, to ensure that Indian and Nepalese carpets are child labour free. In collaboration
with campaign partners in Europe, carpet importers are approached to buy only carpets
with the Rugmark label to assure consumers that no children have been employed in the manufac-
42 Venkatesh Athreya, 'A good beginning'. In: Frontline, June 28, 1996, p. 24.