Bonded (child) labour in the South Indian Garment Industry

An Update of Debate and Action on the ‘Sumangali Scheme’

July 2012

Background bonded labour. Workers make long hours, In a year time, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and the including forced overtime, under unhealthy Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) have conditions. Wages in the spinning mills are far published two major reports documenting the below the legal minimum. exploitation of Dalit girls in the South Indian garment industry that produces for European Pressure from active brands on their suppliers and US markets. has brought about some improvements in employment and labour conditions on the work This update zooms in on on-going abuses in floor and in workers hostels, but major labour the garment industry, as well as on abuses continue to occur. Those brands which the debate and actions to tackle the are active often operate in isolation and lack ‘Sumangali Scheme’, that is fuelled by the the leverage to pressure suppliers, or they do findings and recommendations of the SOMO not succeed in putting promises into practices. and ICN reports. The majority of the brands, however, have not In May 2011, SOMO and ICN published taken any action so far. These are amongst ‘Captured by Cotton’. This report evoked others Diesel, Marks & Spencer, Ralph Lauren, considerable company responses and Quicksilver and buying house Crystal Martin, that supplies well-known brands such as promises for improving the documented labour 1 rights violations. Almost a year later ‘Maid in Mothercare and Next. At the same time, India’ was issued, in which SOMO and ICN public concern about these violations is together with local human rights groups growing. continue to monitor the commitments of brands, trade associations and CSR initiatives Hopeful signs in Tamil Nadu to take concrete action. Local NGOs in Tamil Nadu have reported

some improvements in labour and employment Workers in the textile mills and garment conditions. In Tirupur district the length of the factories in Tamil Nadu, South India, suffer contract period which girls have to fulfil to exploitative working conditions. In ‘Maid in receive a lump sum amount – generally India’, SOMO and ICN document that more consisting of withheld wages – is under than 100,000 girls – possibly up to 300,000 – discussion and in some factories has been work under employment schemes, often reduced from 3 years to 1 year. The Tamil referred to as Sumangali, that amount to

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Nadu Minister of Labour publicly denounced from all over Tamil Nadu, as well as from the the Sumangali Scheme in the State Assembly. Indian States Bihar and Rajasthan were found „The government will not accept the Sumangali to be working in spinning mills in Tirupur. The scheme,‟ the Minister said (IBN Live, May 11, raids followed a complaint by SAVE, a Tirupur- 2012). In a recent meeting with six trade based NGO. The police arrested 26 people unions representing spinning mills workers, the and charged them with illegally employing Minister assured that he would release a children under 14 (The New Indian Express, 14 government order to form a new minimum June 2012). wage committee soon. This committee will fix a minimum wage for regular spinning mill workers. Currently, there is only a legal minimum wage for apprentices. The minister also promised to take ‘appropriate action’ against those mills that use a Sumangali scheme, when the trade unions will provide the details of these spinning mills (Theekathir, 5 July, 2012).

Migrant workers

There is increasing evidence that girls and boys from impoverished regions of India are In ‘Maid in India’ SOMO and ICN also lured to work in the garment factories and document some instances of the employment spinning mills in Tamil Nadu with promises of of children under 14. In defining , good wages, food and accommodation. A local SOMO and ICN apply a ILO Conventions 138 NGO reports that late June 2012, 15 boys from and 182. This implies that all children up to at Northern Indian states were released from a least 14 should be able to attend full-time spinning mill. They had been forced to work education and hazardous labour of children day and night, but had never received any between 14 and 18 is prohibited. According to wages. Trade union activists pressured the the ILO Conventions all girls under 18 working local police to intervene with the employer to in the Tamil Nadu garment industry, making pay the overdue wages which would allow the long hours, often including night shifts, under boys to return home. On 6 July last, the Indian unhealthy circumstances, often far away from daily newspaper The Hindu reported the home, and with severely restricted freedom of trafficking of boys aged 13 to 18 by an movement, qualify a child labourers or even as organised group of brokers. The boys bonded labourers. Although these conventions originating from as far as Bihar in the North of are widely ratified, India has not yet endorsed India were put to work in the Tamil Nadu textile them. While most Code of Conducts of industry. Western brands refer to both ILO Conventions, most content themselves by merely following Indian law, which implies only certain forms of Child Labour employment of children under 14 are seen as In reactions to media exposure on Sumangali it child labour. To date, C&A is the only brand is often denied that child labour, defined by that has agreed to even exchange views on a present Indian law as related to the more ambitious definition of child labour. employment of children under 14 in certain occupations, takes place in the Political responses to Sumangali in in Tamil Nadu. The Factory Inspector of Europe and the USA Tirupur District, for instance, in a letter to local NGOs, denies that child labour occurs in any of Immediately after the release of SOMO and the 84 mills under his supervision. Contrary to ICN’s report ‘Made in India’, a large majority of this statement during recent police raids in the Dutch Parliament adopted a resolution June and July child labourers under 14 coming which: „Requests the government, in co-

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operation with the garment sector, to reach an and that organised a very well-attended multi agreement about full supply-chain stakeholder event in Tirupur in March 2011. transparency and the eradication of child ETI seeks to follow up this meeting by labour in the textile chain and to inform the channelling the resources and buying power of Parliament about the results thereof.‟ SOMO international brands to support local political and ICN have entered into dialogue with the and business involvement. ETI proposes a Dutch government, garment industry trade three-pronged approach that covers the associations and other stakeholders to work on following areas: the implementation of this resolution.  Grassroots outreach: ETI members, The socialist group in the Spanish parliament local business and civil society develop also questioned the Spanish government on a project that will help workers and which steps it will take to address the labour their communities to better understand rights violations in the South Indian textile the risks related to working under the industry. Furthermore, three members of the Sumangali Scheme. European Parliament – from the  Supplier engagement: brands and conservative, social-democrat and liberal retailers will engage spinning mills and groups – have submitted questions to the EU's garment factories in Tamil Nadu to High Representative of the Union for Foreign improve labour conditions and propose Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, ethical sourcing practices all the way requesting that she raise the issue with the down the supply chain. Indian government, develop a joint plan of  Supporting a regulation, inspection action with companies and demand full and services model: ETI also aims to supply chain transparency from the engage with the government of Tamil European garment industry. Nadu and local districts to support the development of labour inspection, The US Department of State Trafficking in regulations and services. One specific Persons Report of June 2012 mentions aim in this work is to reduce the „reports that forced labor may be present in the apprenticeship term from 3 years to 6 Sumangali scheme in Tamil Nadu, in which months. employers pay young women a lump sum to be used for a dowry at the end of a three-year ETI members still have to commit to this term. An increasing number of job placement programme. Local civil society hopes that ETI agencies lure adults and children for forced will use the leverage it has to promote dialogue labour or sex trafficking under false promises among the different stakeholders. of employment.‟ This India-wide development also manifests itself in Tamil Nadu. The report The Fair Labor Association (FLA) in its 2011 recommends that the Indian government annual report states that „This practice increase prosecutions and convictions on all [Sumangali Scheme] has been known to lead forms of trafficking, including bonded labour to forced labour, restricted freedom of and also if there are officials involved, and movement, excessive overtime, health and raise public awareness on bonded labour. An safety risks, and a number of other violations American government delegation visited of the FLA Code of Conduct in factories in victims of the Sumangali scheme and the mills India.‟ The FLA teamed up with ETI in in Tamil Nadu. organising the aforementioned multi stakeholder event in Tirupur. FLA affiliates that source from the four integrated factories in the Steps by industry and multi-stakeholder research are American Eagle Outfitters and initiatives Philips-Van Heusen (mother company of ‘Maid in India’ extensively described the Tamil Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein). Business Nadu Multi Stakeholder group of the Ethical initiative Business Social Compliance Trading Initiative (ETI) that involves 20 Initiative (BSCI) ‘committed to improving international brands, NGOs and trade unions, working conditions in the global supply chain’,

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reports in its annual report for 2011 that it supply chain. SSM India is one of the vertically guides its members, including El Corte Inglés, integrated manufacturers covered by our Ernstings Family and Marks & Spencer, to research. Their garmenting unit, Sumeru Knits, bring an end to this practice. Social will become a fully independent legal entity. Accountability International’s auditors visited Sumeru Knits will disclose all yarn and fabric local NGOs to learn about recent sources they are purchasing from, to C&A’s developments in the sector. All four initiatives auditing organisation SOCAM and its buying have not yet reported on the concrete results office Mondial. Furthermore Sumeru Knits of their efforts. agreed to withdraw business from all mills that are still using the scheme, even if these The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), together companies belong to the SSM group, a family with Indian NGOs SAVE and CIVIDEP, started company. These actions are now being a project to combat harassment in factories. implemented and will be completed by the end The projects aim to establish anti-harassment of August 2012, from then on SOCAM will committees in 50 factories that supply FWF monitor. C&A emphasizes that this is part of a members, and will provide mechanisms for broader approach the company has, that women workers to report violence or amongst others includes outreach to workers’ harassment at work. During this first session is communities. C&A supports the work of Terre was found that workers do not see the des Hommes Germany and their local partners Sumangali scheme in itself as a problem; it that has brought more than 1400 former provides them with employment opportunities sumangali workers back to school or in they do not have elsewhere and often more vocational training. food than they would get at home. According to FWF, the problem lies in the possibilities to Primark is participating in the Child Labour exploit the system to the detriment of the girls. Platform / UN Global Compact Labour Working The trainings, provided for over 30,000 Group to develop strategies against child workers and managers of the factories, and the labour. social audits, aim to reduce the ill-treatment of women workers. The Spanish daily El Confidential published two articles on Sumangali and asked major Spanish brands for a reaction. Cortefiel (Springfield): ‘Eastman Exports is a supplier of ranking A that fulfils all the certificates and is not giving problems’. El Corte Inglés recognised that Eastman Exports is one of their suppliers but „the supplier has abandoned the Sumangali practice and has successfully passed two audits done by BSCI. Eastman Exports nowadays only commits minor irregularities‟. El Corte Inglés also engaged in a stakeholder dialogue in which it shared the results of these audits.

Sumangali in the media and brands’ Inditex (Zara and other brands) referred to responses preventive measures taken by ETI, of which it In their reporting on the SOMO and ICN report, is a member, that will prevent these labour Dutch daily De Volkskrant and other Dutch violations from reoccurring. In its annual report media focussed on C&A and Primark. C&A in 2011, Inditex states that none of its suppliers its reaction says one of the steps it has taken uses the Sumangali scheme. The company to tackle the complex issue of Sumangali is to also claims to have done social audits in the develop a strategy with their supplier SSM mills and to have identified all spinning mill India to resolve labour issues further down its workers. In ‘Maid in India’ we found that one of Inditex’ brands (Pull and Bear) sources from

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Eastman as well. Eastman is indeed the producer where most improvements were Other reports on Sumangali found. ‘Maid in India’ reports that the Sumangali scheme is abandoned at Eastman, ‘Slavery on the High Street’, a report by Anti- that freedom of movement for hostel workers Slavery International (1 June 2012), exposes has improved and that wages are relatively the routine use of practices strongly high at Eastman. However, the report also resembling slavery in the supply chain of top found girls as young as 14 and 15 in UK brands. ‘The owners of the spinning mills Eastman’s factories, it records how workers and factories exploit local customs to portray are forced to work 24 hours in peak period, the forcible confinement of young women and and that there are no trade unions. These are girls to hostels as a way of keeping them all violations of the BSCI Code of Conduct. “safe”. Many workers suffer appalling ill health, brought on by poor diet, poor hygiene in the „The discriminatory practices found ingrained in hostels and the hazards associated with Indian society on the basis of gender and caste working with cotton.‟ Anti-Slavery’s research are playing out in the factories as well, with the covered manufacturers that were not included international companies failing in their attempts in the SOMO/ICN research (SP Apparel, SCM to structurally improve labour conditions at and Prem Group) and who supply brands such their suppliers in TN [Tamil Nadu]„, Indian as H&M, Walmart and Migros. quality newspaper The Hindu writes in its extensive article about the ‘Maid in India’ Solidaridad and the Fair Labour report, 27 April 2012. Association published „Understanding the Sumangali Scheme in Tamil Nadu‟s Textile BBC Radio 4, Today Programme, reported on and Garment Industry„ (8 May 2012), that SOMO, ICN and Anti-Slavery International offers the perspective of women who work findings (1 June 2012). In this broadcast, under the scheme and an elaborate and Marks and Spencer’s insist that understanding of supply chain linkages. One of their own investigations have found these the recommendations is setting up a multi claims against one of their suppliers to be stakeholder grievance remediation mechanism entirely unfounded. The BBC interviews where workers and parents can go to submit workers who say they are instructed to give their grievances. positive answers to any questions posed by auditors who visit the factories they work in. IndustriALL, the new global trade union federation representing workers in mining, German TV stations ZDF and ARD in March energy and manufacturing, issued a report and June 2012 each broadcasted a Precarious Work in India (21 June 2012). The documentary on Sumangali, which highlights report describes the devastating effect of the how brokers recruit girls from impoverished Sumangali scheme, as what was once a families and reports on the high level of permanent, largely unionised workforce has suicides among Sumangali girls. In the ZDF now become a workforce composed of very broadcast, C&A is the only brand willing to young – often under the age of 18 – contract react. ARD has approached Ernstings workers. Since the girls are seldom allowed to Family, who in first instance denies that they leave the factory premises and boarding still source from KPR Mill and assure that they houses, unions cannot reach out to them. The do regular audits. When confronted with export report further raises health and safety issues. data, Ernstings Family admits they did source from KPR, but that this was a delayed delivery, „Textile mills are humid, steamy and noisy and and that they have cut ties with KPR because the high levels of cotton dust make it difficult to KPR Mills has breached Ernstings Families’ breathe. Workers are usually given safety Code of Conduct. masks, but these are not replaced regularly. Dust therefore becomes affixed to the masks,

making it so difficult to breathe that the workers remove their masks. As the young women are

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given very poor quality food, the result is that About SOMO and ICN they often fall ill and have to return to their The Centre for Research on Multinational villages before the contract expires.‟ Corporations (SOMO) is an independent, non-profit research organisation working on IndustrALL calls upon global fashion brands to social, ecological and economic issues related change their buying practices. Brands who buy to sustainable development. from garment factories often fail to do a proper assessment of the factories’ capacity. The The India Committee of the Netherlands Indian factories, in turn, are generally reluctant (ICN) is an independent NGO campaigning to refuse orders. This results in overtime and and doing advocacy work on human rights factories subcontracting to even less regulated issues in India. Both SOMO and ICN are active workplaces. Furthermore, international brands members of the Clean Clothes Campaign in need to insist on transparency with regard to the Netherlands. In India, we work together the labour element of the price of a garment, with the Campaign against Sumangali so as to ensure that the price is sufficient to Scheme (CASS) and the Tirupur People’s pay for the wages and benefits workers are Forum. entitled to. Please see our website for up-to-date overview Caste of the Sumangali situation.

One of the elements that remains underexposed in most media, research and strategies by brands and MSIs is the fact that a majority of the girls working under the Sumangali scheme are from a Dalit (‘untouchables’) background, the most subordinated group in Indian society. An exception to this is an online article by US- based media platform GOOD. ‘Caste Off’ describes how Dalit girls from poor and rural backgrounds are recruited with false promises to work in the spinning mills. It also describes 1 In an earlier version of this briefing paper Gap was included as a customer of Crystal Martin. After the work of READ, an NGO that works for the consultation with Gap it was decided to remove the empowerment of Dalit women and rescues reference to Gap as the company explained that it children from forced labour in agriculture and works with the Crystal Group, mother company of Crystal Martin, but that it has stopped working with textile mills. Crystal Martin in 2008.

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Colophon

Bonded (child) labour in the South Indian Garment Industry An Update of Debate and Action on the ‘Sumangali Scheme’ July 2012

Authors: Pauline Overeem (SOMO) & Marijn Peepercamp (ICN) Cover photo: Tirupur People’s Forum Photos: Allesandro Brasile Text correction: Elise Reynolds ISBN: 978 -94-6207-009-7

This publication is made possible with financial assistance from The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of SOMO and ICN and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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