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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month). Starting wages ranged from Rs 5 and Rs 13 per day (Rs 130 to Rs 338 per month). Boys
earned more than girls because they worked more day- and nightshifts per week. Both boys and
girls worked in the nightshift.
- Adults earned according to the piece rate system and earned wages that varied from Rs 15 to Rs
75 per day (Rs 400 to Rs 1950 per month); the lowest adult wage was paid to children who had
just passed the age of 14 years, and were, according to the law, adults now.
- Most of the children worked 12 to 16 hours per day 6 days a week. That meant 1,5 to 2 shifts of
8 hours per day. The working day started at 8 a.m. and ended no earlier than 9 p.m. Boys and girls
regularly worked on Sundays and in nightshifts, which meant that they did not reach home earlier
than 1 a.m. No extra money was paid for overtime work or work which was carried out in the
nightshift. Overtime work was paid according to the piece rate system.
- Jobs for children consisted of mainly helping the tailor or the person who dyes and bleaches the
clothes. When they started working, children performed tasks like arranging clothes, folding
clothes, giving clothes to other adult workers, and carrying bundles of clothes to other rooms.
After one or two years they were still assisting the tailor but with jobs like holding the garment
while the tailor stitches the cloth, reaching buttons and threads to the tailor, but also checking,
threads cutting, packing and sometimes also stitching and button holing. Adults performed jobs
like sampling, pattern making, cutting, stitching (mainly women), ironing, checking, packing,
dyeing and bleaching.
- The family income of the interviewed children ranged from Rs 1300 to Rs 3600 per month. The
average family size consisted of 5 members and the family earned on average Rs 2300 per month.
The parents who worked in the hosiery industry earned more than parents who did other jobs.
- The interviewed children had a negative attitude towards child labour and were of the opinion
that children of a young age should be in school. The children felt helpless in their situation as
child labourers but they had to abide with their parents. Child labourers had education levels
which ranged between second and fifth standard, but the majority dropped out during fourth
standard which is around the age of ten. The majority of children dropped out of school when
their families migrated from the rural areas to Tirupur, and were not enroled again in Tirupur but
was sent to work.
- The existence of free non-formal education centres and NGOs who made parents aware of these
centres and the positive aspects of education, motivated parents to send their children to these
centres but not to withdraw them from work.
- The majority of the child labourers had no free time to relax, to play, or to meet friends due to
regular overtime work, working nightshifts, and sometimes working on Sundays. When the
children did not have to work overtime they had to attend non-formal education in the evening.
Especially girls lacked sufficient free time to rest because whenever she was free she had to do
household work and to care for siblings also. After work the majority of the boys went straight to
their homes, had diner, and went to bed.
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