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

Child and adult labour in the garment export industry of Tirupur
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mention the wages of the children, but the children got paid less than the adults. The owner told
me that the wages of the children were not fixed. The workers did not get statutory benefits like
ESI, Provident Fund, maternity leave, sick-leave, bonus etc. No labour union was active in the
unit. The women did jobs like checking, cutting, some stitching and button holing. The men were
all involved in tailoring, sampling, cutting, ironing or checking.
Case II
This unit is a supplier to an exporter in Bombay and only undertakes the process of bleaching and
dyeing of the knitted and woven fabrics. The Bombay exporter has all its knitwear clothing manufactured
in Tirupur by its own manufacturing unit which operates since 1980, and where only
processes like sampling, cutting, stitching, checking, ironing and packing are done. The bleached
and dyed fabrics go to the manufacturing unit where the fabrics are made into garments. The
latter unit produces mainly ladies knitwear products like shirts, blouses, pyjamas, T-shirts,
nightgowns, etc. which are of a lower quality and exported, through Bombay, to the Netherlands
(Darnhouwer RW, Interwear, M.l.v.c.), France, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Norway.
The visit to the bleaching and dyeing unit was very short and the manager from Bombay had little
time to answer questions. While walking through the unit, which had many departments, he told
me that he could not answer questions related to labour because he was only a client of the unit
and not the employer.
In the unit, huge dyeing machines were twisting and turning the fabrics in huge containers with
dyes and chemicals. In another building large containers with water and chemicals were used to
bleach the fabrics. Both the bleaching and dyeing process take place in hot water. Tonnes of
wood are used to heat the water. The exporter from Bombay mentioned the degradation of the
surrounding areas as the wood has to be imported from other states in India. The manager did not
offer any solutions and felt not responsible for finding solutions. Apart from the deforestation the
dye and bleach processes need huge amounts of water. This water is taken from the nearby river
Noyyal and other rivers or the water is taken from the ground water.
Inside the dyeing house I almost had to run through the different bleaching and dyeing sections to
be able to follow the exporter. I could think of two reasons for this behaviour. Firstly, in the
dyeing section around five to six boys are working and they are definitely younger than 14. Secondly,
the air is so polluted with chemical dust coming from the bleaching and dyeing processes,
that it is difficult to breathe and one needs fresh air quickly. I was shocked by this experience.
Children and adults work in this unit 12 to 14 hours per day and also in nightshifts.
The children looked exhausted and their shirts were dirty and covered with paint rests from dyed
clothes which they had to carry from one dye-machine to the other with their bare hands. Also
their faces and hands were coloured with paint coming from the clothes. The clothes had to be
brought from the bleach section to the dye section by the child to give it a fashion colour. I only
saw boys working in this dyeing and bleaching unit. They assisted the adults who carried out the
processes of dyeing and bleaching. I saw the adults ordering the children to run to them quickly
and assist them. None of the boys was wasting his time. As they saw me they never stopped assisting
the adults. I could hardly ask questions because the manager himself talked all the way or he
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