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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beaten by the supervisor, if they did not work according to his wishes. Girl children experienced
often stress at work due to supervisors who scolded at them if they talked to other children.
It is reported 93 that 'cotton dust damages the lungs and will lead to T.B. Currently, about 10 to 15
new cases of T.B. are admitted to the Government Hospital at Tirupur everyday. Eye diseases and
infections are also commonly reported by hosiery workers coming for treatment at the
Government Hospital. Workers who have to stand the whole day with their naked body in a bath
with water containing bleaching chemicals while treating the fabrics, often suffer from skin
diseases. The harmful chemicals which are used in the processing of cotton are Sodium hydroxide,
Sodium Hypochlorite, Sodium Sulphide, Hydrochloric acid and a number of dyes based on a
toxic benzidine structure'.
Water in Tirupur is polluted, due to dumping tonnes of contaminated water into the river Noyyal
by dyeing and bleaching units. This also affects the health of the children and the population in
general. Informants said that the bulk of the dyeing units do not treat their waste water before
dumping it back into the river and on the land. The drinking water is totally polluted and the
crops on the small pieces of land around Tirupur fail or have become of less quality. Many people
in Tirupur were complaining about skin diseases due to contaminated water. If you dig a well you
will only get coloured water because the ground water in Tirupur is polluted by the untreated
effluent. During visits to the slum areas, it was observed that the living conditions in the slums,
where the majority of the child labourers live, were very bad and the slums were highly contaminated.
In the slums there were no toilets and there was no drainage. The garbage of Tirupur is
collected and dumped next to the slums and the smell was very bad. This affects the health of the
whole population and even more of the children. Several thousands of people including the children
did fall victim to water borne diseases.
Health was also affected by very meagre family incomes which were not sufficient when prices
increased; not enough and sufficiently nutritious food could be bought by these families. Thus, a
rise in the price index, affected the nutritional status of families and especially the food/protein
intake of children, and also partly caused ill-health in these family. The children said that often
there was not enough money to buy food for the whole family.
Future plans
The interviews with the working children revealed that most of the children would like to do jobs
in the future which they knew from their own factories, like supervisor, tailor, printer and
contractor so that they could earn a lot of money. Two of the children stated that they wanted to
become a teacher because they were inspired by the teachers in the non-formal education centre.
The working girl child
The working girl child was worse off than the boy child in terms of education, free time and
earnings. Girls were more likely to drop out (earlier) from school than boys, and they earned less
than boys because boys worked more often in the nightshift than girls. Unlike boys, girls had to
work in the household, like cleaning vessels, sweeping the house, fetching water etc., and were
93 Centre for Social Education and Development, Avinashi, Tamil Nadu, India. Child Labour in the Hosiery Industry of Tirupur, 1995.
Unpublished.