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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pull factors like the remunerative employment, caused and sustained child labour despite
legislation against it.
4.4 Results and discussions of field visits: working conditions of child and
adult labour
The researcher of the present study visited around 15 hosiery manufacturing units. Eight children,
who combined work in the knitwear industry with non-formal education, were interviewed
thoroughly. Interviews were also held with the AITUC, one of the labour unions active in Coimbatore
District and Tirupur, and with two NGOs operating in the area, namely: Save in Tirupur,
and the Centre for Social Education and Development in Avinashi.
The findings concern the social background of the child workers and the reason for migration,
ages, wages, working hours, employment, family size and income and reason of working, the
opinion of working children on child labour, education, recreation, working circumstances,
statutory benefits and labour unions, health hazards, future plans and the working girl child.
Social background of the children and reason for migration
All the interviewed children were Hindu and of the Backward Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Communities. They lived in the slum areas in the centre of Tirupur Municipality. Most of these
children were employed in knitwear factories which were located in these slum areas. The majority
of the children were migrants from neighbouring villages and districts.
The main reasons for migration were 'unemployment of the parents', 'better job opportunities in
Tirupur' and 'debts in the village'. According to manufacturers and experts, other reasons were:
small (or absence of) landholding in the villages, frequent droughts and lack of irrigational facilities.
The above mentioned reasons forced families to seek employment in the city of Tirupur
where the demand for workers in the hosiery manufacturing units was high. The wages in the hosiery
industry were higher than in the rural areas, which was also an extra incentive to migrate
and start working in the hosiery industry in Tirupur.
Rani, a girl of ten years of age and who just started working in a hosiery factory in Tirupur, was
interviewed in this study. She said: 'I'm a migrant from Madurai District. My father told me that
he was suffering from loans which he had taken earlier and could not pay back. Therefore we
have left the village. He wants me to work to earn more money for the family. But my father also
wants me to continue following education, so I also joined the lessons in the non-formal education
centre, which is only possible if I do not have to work in the night'.
No study has been made in the areas from where the families have migrated. For understanding
the migration and related child labour problem one should also study the socio-economic
background of families in the rural areas which are potential future migrants and whose children
can become child labourers. Only when adults have sufficient income-generating activities in the
rural areas and are earning living wages with these activities, there is no need to migrate and there
is no need to send their children to work.