Chapter 8 Conclusions
On the basis of the findings, the following conclusions can be drawn:
(on child labour in the export-oriented garment and gem polishing industry of India) 1. For both, the garment export industry in Tirupur and in Bangalore as well as the gem polishing export industry in Jaipur, it has been found that their expansion, due to an increased international demand by European countries and the US for garments and (semi-)precious gem stones, caused an increase in the number of economically exploited child and adult labourers. When children are concerned this caused more school drop outs and illiterate children. It has been found that the labour of children who work in the above mentioned industries interferes with their mental, physical and social development.
Especially in the garment industry as compared with the gem polishing industry the children are physically and economically exploited. Though the children in the garment industry earn higher wages than the children in the gem polishing industry, they are forced to work more hours per day and also in the nightshift because export orders have to be completed in time. This puts a tremendous stress on the children. The majority of the children in the garment industry of Tirupur suffers from exhaustion. This is even more the case for the children who have to combine work with education in the evening in non-formal education centres. 2. Employers of both the industries have a vested interest in child labour because they can pay the children a fraction of what an adult should be paid for the same job and, hence, can make more profits. When the child starts working he or she performs simple tasks, but after a few years work, while the child is still younger than 14 years, the child does almost all the jobs which adults do with the same speed and skills for the same number of hours per day. After a few years of working, the child earns still less than an adult. 3. The 'pull factor' which partly caused an increase in the number of child labourers in the hosiery industry of Tirupur as well as in the gem polishing industry of Jaipur, was the expansion of both industries. The expansion of both industries is caused by an increased international demand for garments and precious and semi-precious gem stones respectively. The expansion created an extra demand for cheap (child) labour. In Tirupur also the structure of the industry - a second pull factor - partly caused child labour. The majority of the manufacturing units in Tirupur are specialized in only a few processes (called 'job working') of the garment production chain. Among the manufacturers there is a system of networking. The fragmentation of the production process into many small (job working) units, allowed the owners of these units to flout (child) labour laws. The manufacturers of these job working units employed many children in operations which involved only a small period of training for acquiring the skill. 4. 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 are unemployed or who have low income jobs or who have a sick family member, and migration of the family to Tirupur. In the case of migration children where withdrawn from school and they never enroled again in Tirupur.
The 'push factors' which partly caused child labour in the gem polishing industry of Jaipur were: the recent migration of families to Jaipur, increasing wages of child labourers, and the socio-cultural context of parents: their positive attitude towards work and their negative attitude towards the existing primary education facilities in Jaipur.
Although poverty is an important cause (push factor) of children being sent to work, equally important causes are: lack of awareness of the negative aspects of child labour and of the positive role education can play in the improvement of their children's future. In Tirupur it was observed, however, that the existence of free non-formal education centres and a NGO 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. In Jaipur it was observed that the majority of Muslim parents even had a positive attitude towards work, which led to sending their children to work at a very young age (i.e. 5-6 years) and hence caused total illiteracy of their children. In Jaipur it was also observed, however, that adults with some level of education, who had started working at the age of around 15 years, had a shorter apprenticeship period, grasped the skills earlier and could, because they were educated, demand higher wages at an earlier time in their career. This implicates that awareness-raising of the parents of the positive effects of elementary education is very important. 5. The existing primary education facilities in Jaipur as well as in Tirupur are not adequate, meaningful and attractive for children. If children were enroled, these facilities were not adequate to keep children in school. This was stronger in Tirupur than in Jaipur. 6. The working girl child, both in the garment and gem polishing industry, is burdened with more work than the boy child; she is needed in the household whenever she is free and has to take care of siblings next to her regular job. This has serious repercussions on her health. Because the girl child is also needed in the household next to her economic activities, she is often withdrawn from school earlier than the boy child and never has time to play. This affects her educational and social development negatively.
(on child and/or adult labour in the garment export industry of India) 7. As part of the growing movement in India against child labour, the two largest networks of non-governmental organizations against child labour - the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) and the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) - have taken up the issue of child labour in the garment industry in Tirupur. This has already made a discernable impact on the exporters and their associations who have promised to phase out child labour in the garment industry.
In India itself the initiatives concerning the issue of child labour in the garment industry have created a climate in which also the European importers, retailers and consumers can play a positive role by demanding garments produced without child labour, and under decent labour conditions for adults. 8. When child labour is almost absent in an industry, women labour is the next section of the labour force which is prone to exploitation. The export-oriented garment industry in Bangalore is an example of this phenomenon. If children are going to be replaced by adults, women are the next 'target group'. This asks for measures to improve their working conditions as well, like: the right to collective bargaining, a 'need based' minimum wage, permanent employment, the availability of a creche at the workplace, social security and regular checks on a normal working day of 8 hours without working overtime, in nightshifts or on Sundays. 9. European retailers, chain-stores and buying houses are contributing to economic exploitation of children and women workers by buying garments from manufacturers in Tirupur and Bangalore if they do not require from their supplier(s) to abide by minimum labour norms like absence of child labour, 'need based' wages, a permanent employment contract, social security, the right to collective bargaining, a normal 8-hour working day etc. The market-driven push to purchase garments at the lowest possible price, without taking these basic labour standards into consideration, will lead to continued exploitation of children and other workers.
(on bonded child labour in the synthetic gem polishing industry of Trichy) 10. The government of Tamil Nadu does not acknowledge bonded (child) labour in its state and is unwilling to do something about the problem of bonded (child) labour which is prevalent in the synthetic gem polishing industry in and around Trichy and other parts in Tamil Nadu.
Due to the absence of an enforcement machinery in Tamil Nadu, especially in the rural areas, and of job alternatives for poor and irregular agricultural activities due to heavy droughts, synthetic gem stone manufacturers and entrepreneurs have a monopoly in generating employment and can continue the system of debt bondage. Bonded child labourers, who carry the debt of their parents with them for the rest of their lives, are not free to move to other jobs and/or areas and can never go to school again. Employers pay very low wages because the workers have a debt with them which can be ten to a thousand times their wage. The parents (and the bonded (child) labourers) are not able to pay back the debts and the ever increasing interest. 11. In the rural areas of Tamil Nadu, a lack of programmes for agricultural development, alternative income-generating projects and (government) support to form synthetic gem stone worker-cooperatives, forces many under- and unemployed people to take up the job of synthetic gem stone polishing. They become victims of the system of debt bondage which is practised by local entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs control almost the whole region of Tamil Nadu, especially the areas of Trichy and Pudukottai District. Bonded child labour, especially in the growing synthetic gem stone industry of Tamil Nadu, is the consequence.
(on solutions to the problem of child labour in the hosiery export industry of Tirupur and the gem polishing export industry of Jaipur) 12. The combination of work and a few hours of education per day, is not a solution to end child labour and improve the qulaity of their life; after a day of hard work children are too tired to concentrate in school. The making of homework is disrupted because children, especially girls, are also needed to help in the household and to take care of siblings. This has been observed in Tirupur where children were found working in the export-oriented garment industry and combined this work with non-formal education in the evening. 13. The Government's action plan to eliminate child labour from the gem polishing industry in Jaipur, has proved to be unrealistic and cannot function as a model to eliminate children from other industries or areas. The scope of the action plan, implemented by 20 special school and 50 non-formal education centres, is too limited. Out of 15,000 child labourers, only 1,000 children under 14 years of age could be weaned from the industry through the 20 special schools. The 50 non-formal education centres which are supposed to give non-formal education every day to around 1,500 child labourers next to their work in the industry, are irregularly attended by the child labourers and lack motivated teachers. Thus, 1,000 children are covered by the programme and around 1,500 child labourers get some non-formal education, but around 12,500 child labourers do not get any form of protection since also the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act and other legislation have been hardly enforced. Parents got upset because only one child in a family (with often 5 to 9 children) could be admitted in a special school and the parents had to buy food and school items which were supposed to be provided by the schools.
It is not known how many child labourers in Jaipur are completely illiterate and how many combine work in the gem industry with going to a government or private school; no census has been held to make an estimate of the number of child labourers in the gem polishing industry in Jaipur.
Further, lack of involvement of the local community, parents and teachers in the decision making and implementation of the special school, inadequate funds and the absence of a promised awareness-raising programme and income-generating projects for poor parents of working children, are the main factors why the schools did not achieve their aims; children were still found working in the industry after school hours.
Whatever may be the programme to eliminate children from the industry, or to improve school enrolment, if the local community, NGOs, parents and teachers are not involved in decision making and implementation, the programme will fail.
(on child labour in general)
Child labour in India will continue as long as: * the primary education system is not compulsory, not free and inadequate; * the parents lack sufficient income, do not see the relevance of education due to the non-existence of good education possibilities, are not aware of the negative aspects of child labour; * the Government does not declare a total ban on all kinds of child labour, instead of prohibiting them in only a few hazardous occupations and processes; and, last but not least, * the law enforcement and controlling machinery is inadequate.
If so, * children will keep on dropping out of schools; * parents will keep on sending their children to work; and, * employers will keep on employing children in all kinds of professions and exploiting them while violating the laws, for which crime nobody is punished.

Chapter 9 Recommendations 1. Because the number of economically exploited child labourers has increased and the working conditions are poor in the export-oriented garment and gem polishing industry in India, partly due to an increased international demand for products like garments and gem stones, importers should demand from Indian exporters and manufacturers of these products not to employ children and to comply with certain minimum labour conditions like a 'need based' wage, the right to collective bargaining, an 8-hour working day, health protection, social security, etc. Importers should take their responsibility and demand an improvement in the general labour conditions along the subcontracted chain, and support programmes to train unemployed adults and parents in the skills of the industry so that they can replace the children.
As far as the garment industry in Tirupur is concerned, the industry is open for dialogue, and importers, but also action groups, NGOs, labour unions etc. should be made aware of this. Export Promotion Councils in India and Business Promotion Councils in Europe, European retail companies and chain-stores and their suppliers, should be brought together to open a discussion on the subject of child labour and bad working conditions, and to arrive at solutions and ways to implement these solutions.
The Fair Trade Charter for Garments (see appendix 4), launched by the Clean Clothes Campaign in the Netherlands and by other similar organizations in other European countries, could be an important instrument to improve labour and living conditions of workers in the export-oriented garment industry in India. The Clean Clothes Campaign supports with this instrument activities of Indian labour unions and NGOs which also aim to improve basic labour conditions of workers in the garment industry. Collaboration is needed for the implementation of the Charter. 2. Although child labour is prevalent among the poorest sections of Indian society, it is not only caused by economic compulsions but also because of lack of awareness of the negative aspects of child labour and, hence, of the positive role that education can play in improving the quality of living conditions of people. Lack of adequate and attractive primary education facilities is also a main contributing factor to child labour. Therefore, efforts have to be made on this front, especially among the poorest sections of society.
National and international organizations should continue to pressurize the Government of India to make primary education free, compulsory, meaningful, attractive and joyful. They can also play an important role in awareness-raising, e.g. by designing, implementing, supporting and communicating school-related projects which have been set up and in which the local community, parents and teachers are actively involved. 3. It has been found that migration from the rural areas, due to the local lack of job opportunities for the parents, breaks the school career of children, who are never enroled again but sent to work in places where the job opportunities are better. It is therefore recommended to make more detailed studies on the problem of child labour related to migration, because of under- and unemployment in the rural areas. Alternative income-generating programmes for parents combined with compulsory, attractive and meaningful primary education in the rural areas, are essential to prevent families from migrating and ending up in even worse exploitative situations, including their children. 4. Because a girl's childhood, educational and social development are more affected than a boy's due to her double burden of household and economic activities, she needs extra attention in awareness-raising, development and educational programmes. Parents need to be made aware of the negative effects when they burden their daughter with too much work. Especially employers in the garment industry in India should create creche facilities. This should be a demand of importers who buy their garments from exporters who do not have such a facility at present