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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In my opinion, the Government, in its actions to end child labour, should not allow only
employers to find alternatives for child labourers by providing them education or expecting from
employers that they would send the children to school etc.; it should make use of their willing
attitude to change the situation but take the implementation of programmes in its own hands. As
long as the Government does not implement its laws related to child labour, and does not
regularly check employers on compliance with (child) labour legislation like the Child Labour
(P&R) Act, not much can be expected of the (phased) elimination and regulation of child labour
by employers in the export-oriented hosiery industry who have an interest in cheap labour. Even
less can be expected of non-formal education and regulation of child labour because the combination
of work and school makes children too tired. They have little concentration left to follow the
lessons. The Government should put more emphasis on compliance with labour laws through an
improved and more strict enforcement machinery. Labour inspectors should visit the units more
often and fine the violating employers immediately according to what the law has prescribed.
Employers, now opening up in the discussions pertaining the evil of child labour, should try
harder to cooperate and refuse to employ children. Labour related laws like the Minimum Wage
Act, if enforced, would give workers a minimum wage and other statutory benefits, which the
majority of workers is not getting at present. If enforced, labour related legislation would improve
the working and labour conditions of adult workers; the parents of child labourers. This would
reduce the need to send the child to work for extra income. Parents of child labourers who do not
work in the hosiery industry or who are unemployed, should either be trained or should be
employed in income-generating programmes which will raise their income to a 'need based' wage.
4.8 Summary of the findings
- The pull factors which partly caused child labour in the hosiery industry in Tirupur were: the
structure of the industry - a fragmented production process (job working) which allowed
manufacturers to violate (child) labour laws and led to the employment of many children who
were trained in simple skills in a short time period - and the expansion of the industry. The push
factors which partly caused child labour in the hosiery industry of Tirupur were: the relatively
high wages of the child labourers, the existence of poor and inadequate primary education facilities
in Tirupur, poverty of the parents who either were unemployed, who had low income jobs,
or who had a ill family member, and migration of families to Tirupur - the moment children were
withdrawn from school and never enroled again in Tirupur.
- The interviewed child labourers were from the Backward Caste and Scheduled Tribes
Communities. The majority of the children was migrant from surrounding drought prone rural
areas. The reason for migration was often debt of parents and lack of job opportunities in the village,
and better job opportunities in Tirupur.
- The interviewed child labourers in the hosiery industry started working at an age that ranged
from 7 to 12 years. The age range of the interviewed child labourers was between 10 and 13
years. The wages of children were either paid per day, week or according to the piece rate system.
The wages of the child labourers ranged from Rs 13 to Rs 28 per day (Rs 338 to Rs 728 per