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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revealed and the European retailers, chain-stores and buying houses which buy their garments
from the respective manufacturing garment companies of the different cases. Not all the above
mentioned foreign retailers, chain-stores and/or buying houses are mentioned in the cases hereafter
because the cases of their supplying garment manufacturing companies in Tirupur are not
included in this report. In these units the same bad labour conditions were found, like in the other
manufacturing units.
Case I
This manufacturing unit is a supplier to an exporter in Tirupur and is located in KPN Colony, 1-2
km from the centre of Tirupur. KPN Colony has an open drainage and the streets are very dirty,
but the units which I have seen in this area are spacious, sufficiently lit and freshly painted, but
without ventilation.
In this unit mainly T-shirts are produced which are exported to the Netherlands, Italy, the
Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the United States of
America.
At the moment of my visit, the unit had a slack time and less workers than usual were hired by
the unit owner. The unit owner was waiting for new orders. Orders do not come regularly for it
depends on the exporters if subcontracting of the work by them is needed. It is also possible that
an exporter starts business with other units. The small number of orders had been caused by a set
back in the industry which is caused by increased yarn prices and decreased orders placed by foreign
buyers. Germany does not allow the import of garments from India which have been
produced with certain chemicals like Azo-dyes, because the garments with these chemicals proved
to cause skin problems to consumers. The media in Germany and other European countries
have made people aware of this issue. This has led to a set back in orders from foreign buyers
with Indian garment manufacturers. The negative publicity regarding the quality of garments from
India, has hit the garment manufacturers of this and other units the hardest, according to the unit
owner.
In the unit I saw four children at work. They all sat on the floor on a mat and were doing simple
tasks. A boy, who did not look older than 11, sat on the floor with next to him a huge pile of knitted
clothes. He was folding the clothes. In the back of the unit I saw a very young girl sweeping
the floor where all the cut cloth had fallen down. One girl sat on the floor behind the tailor and
seemed to do some tasks for him. Another girl was folding the pieces of cloth on the floor.
The children, like the adults work 12 to 14 hours per day when there is a high demand and when
the export order has to be met in time. At the moment of my visit, less adults and more children
were employed because an order had just been finished and delivered to the exporter. To keep the
workers employed in a slack period, is too expensive. Only simple tasks have to be done which
can easily be done by children who are paid less than adults.
The manager told me that the women are paid less than the men because their work is less skilled.
The wages of adults were paid according to the piece rate system and varied from Rs 30 to Rs 75
per day. The wage depends on the quality of the garments and the skills of the worker. He did not