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

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Child and adult labour in the garment export industry of Tirupur
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nizationally. The numerous small units which came into existence allowed the owners of these
units to flout or ignore questions related to conditions of work and labour laws. 'The small units
which manufacture only a few processes of garment production, called 'job working', has added
to the problem of child labour because it enables the many owners of the job-work units to employ
children between the ages of five and fourteen in operations which involve only a small
period of training for acquiring the skill' 85 .
Thus, the employment of children is also partly caused by the change in the organization of the
production in the manufacturing units. Today, the children form an important segment in the production
process of the hosiery industry and employers have a vested interest in employing them
because they are the cheapest people of the labour force.
In a study on the knitwear cluster in Tirupur, the impact the structure of the hosiery industry had
on child and adult labour, is described as follows: 'The availability of work on subcontract basis
encouraged many people who had only some capital to become entrepreneurs. The pace of employment
of women and children quickened after the industry started exporting its goods. The
employer's attempt to organize the labour process in a particular way was done for nothing else
but to attain control over the labour process and to maximize the surplus value extraction. Since
expenses on machinery, raw materials etc., cannot be reduced much, the employers try to reduce
the expenses on labour by way of subcontracting, employing women and children and splitting
up of units which would help to avoid legal regulations' 86 .
Among the push factors, which also partly cause the influx of child (and adult) labour in the
hosiery industry in Tirupur, are the relatively high wages 87 of children (and adults) in comparison
with other labour intensive industries in Tamil Nadu, like the beedi and match industry 88 . In the
hosiery industry, children are able to earn wages between Rs 30 and Rs 70 per day 89 , while in the
beedi industry, for example, children earn around Rs 3 per day for 12 to 14 hours of work 90 . Parents,
therefore, have an interest in sending their children to the hosiery industry. Another push
factor is related to the primary schools in Tirupur. A study 91 undertaken in 1995 on the issue of
child labour in the hosiery industry in Tirupur, revealed that most of the primary schools in Tirupur
lack adequate infrastructural facilities in terms of building and, they lack teachers and lear-
85 The Economic Times, 1994. Stated by C. Nambi, Centre for Social Education and Development, Avinashi, Tamil Nadu, India.
86 Padmini Swaminathan and J. Jeyaranjan, 'The Knitwear Cluster in Tirupur: An Indian Industrial District in the Making?'. Working Paper
no. 126, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Madras, 1994.
87 In an interview, Mr. Nambi, the director of Centre for Social Education and Development (CSED), an NGO working against child labour
in and around Avinashi and Tirupur, said that children who were not working or stopped working due to intervention of CSED, again
started working in the same or other industries, because the working children formed 'peer' groups and influenced each other and other nonworking
children with nice stories that they earned a lot of money.
88 C. Nambi, 1995, ibid., p. 53.
89 The Hindu, September 20, 1995. 'Child labour census in Tirupur next month'.
90 A. Krishnakumar, 'Reprehensible by any name, Children in beedi industry'. In: Frontline, November 17, 1995. In the article, it is further
stated that the majority of the adults and children in the beedi industry are bonded labourers, which means that against a taken loan from the
employer, children and adults work for him. The wages get reduced with the interest of the loan. The workers become bonded and stay bonded
because they can never pay back the loans. The legal wage for rolling 1,000 beedies is Rs 30 per day, in Tamil Nadu. A person or child, rolls
around 2,000 to 3,000 per day during 12 to 14 hours of work.
91 C. Nambi, 1995, ibid., p. 55.