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 the evening if they do not work overtime. Because parents have not been made aware of the
damage this work and education schedule causes to the children, the health of these children is
more at risk. Especially the health, the social and mental development of the girl child are more
affected than of the boy child. She is required to work in the household also and to take care of
siblings whenever she is free next to the above mentioned work and education schedule, unlike
the boy child. The children who combine (full-time) work with education are often too tired to
concentrate on the lessons in the non-formal education centre. They attend these centres
irregularly due to regular forced overtime work. They even have less time to play with friends
after a working day and they have less time to eat meals and to sleep.
In general, girls, whether they attend a non-formal education centre or not, are withdrawn earlier
from regular schooling than boys because they are needed in the household. This means that girls
are less educated than boys and they have less job opportunities in future than boys.
Overall, most of the child labourers in the hosiery industry of Tirupur suffer from severe exhaustion
and do not have sufficient time left to play and to rest. In addition, they have their (low
nutritious) meals at irregular times. This will have repercussions on the health of these working
children and will result in illness of the child labourers, especially the girls. It means that in near
future, suppose they will fall ill, they may not be able any longer to earn income for the family.
Child labour in the hosiery industry exists because the employers have a vested interest in their
cheap labour, because they pay the children less than adults for the same number of working
hours per day (i.e. 12 to 16 hours per day, which includes work in the nightshift and on Sundays
also). Children who start working earn around one-third of the lowest paid adult and one-eighth
of the highest paid adult. After a few years of working these ratio's are respectively, two-third and
one-fourth, while the children start with carrying out the same jobs as adults. Child labour in the
hosiery industry is not prohibited, but should be regulated according to the Child Labour (Prohibition
& Regulation) Act of 1986. Employers, therefore, can be fined if they do not regulate child
labour in their workshops and establishments.
Children who are working in the hosiery industry are economically exploited and deprived of
their education, social life and play. Especially the health and the mental development are
affected of the children who combine full-time work with evening education in the different nonformal
education centres. The child is often too tired to absorb the few hours of education in the
non-formal education centre. Child labour in the hosiery industry should be prohibited because it
continues the 'vicious circle of poverty' and causes early health problems of the children. They are
not able to learn in school to the maximum which means that in future they can not get better
jobs.
Combining non-formal education with (regulated) work, which is a proposed strategy of the former
government, the industry, and the labour union (AITUC) to improve the working conditions
of child labourers and to educate them, is not a solution to the problem of child labour in the hosiery
industry of Tirupur. The proposed 6 hours of hectic work which has to be combined with 2
to 4 hours education, if this is strictly adhered to, will exhaust the children and affect their health
adversely. This will lead to the same situation as was found with the interviewed children of this