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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- The working conditions of the visited manufacturing units all had toilet, washing and drinking
water facilities, but ventilation was poor, if any, or absent. Adult and child labourers were not
paid statutory benefits like, for example, bonuses, twice paid salary for overtime work, ESI, PF,
sickness leave, maternity leave, etc. Adult workers were paid according to the piece rate system
and were not paid minimum wages. Labour unions were opposed by the majority of the employers.
The latter did not allow workers to join a labour union.
- Health hazards of the interviewed children were primarily typhoid in their first year of
employment and overall exhaustion. Adults and children who worked in a dyeing or bleaching
unit, suffered from cough and eye problems due to polluted air which was filled with chemical
dust coming from the dyeing and bleaching process. The children irregularly ate their meals
because of irregular working timings. These meals were not always nutritious. The slum areas
where the child labourers lived were very dirty, and dyeing and bleaching units polluted the
ground-water in these areas with untreated industrial effluent. This affected also the health of the
children.
- Child labourers in the hosiery industry wanted future jobs which were related to the hosiery
industry or to the environment of the non-formal education centre, like the job of a teacher.
- The visits to garment manufacturing units in Tirupur (direct exporters and subcontracted units) -
revealed that in the majority of these units the working conditions were bad. For example, most
of the employers of these supplying units and direct export companies did not pay legal minimum
wages, workers did not get social security benefits like ESI and PF, working overtime was not
paid twice the salary, working days lasted much longer than 8 hours, women earned lower wages
than men for the same job, workers were not allowed to organize themselves and to join labour
unions, and the majority of these exporters and suppliers employed children in the production
process. Employers/exporters openly admitted that they deliberately had divided their production
unit into more units (with different names) to avoid labour problems.
- Visits to manufacturing units in Tirupur revealed the following European retailers, chain-stores
and buying houses which buy knitted garments from Indian exporters and manufacturers in
Tirupur who produced knitted garments under bad labour conditions and with the use of children:
from the Netherlands: C&A, Maxi, Coby Tex, Ciso, Darnhouwer RW, M.l.v.c.; from the United
Kingdom: Ethel Austin; and, from France: Carrefour. Foreign retailers, buying houses and chainstores
which buy knitted garments from exporters in Tirupur who produced garments under bad
labour conditions but where no children were found working, include from the Netherlands: Naf
Naf, Daltral; from England: Havika International, Suchata Fiction Clothing Company; from Belgium:
INNO, Textile Puttmens; from Germany: Ringulla; from Canada: Trio Selection; from
Switzerland: Coop Schweiz and, from France: Devico.
- The case study of All Indian Trade Union Congress (AITUC), a labour union active in Tirupur,
reveals it is in favour of regulating child labour because they do not find the work dangerous to
children's health in which case it should be prohibited. They are in favour of increasing the wages
of children to a minimum wage and providing children 2 to 4 hours education in non-formal education
schools to be opened by the government. The AITUC has 5,000 members out of 200,000