Child Labour

I  saw in the News a few days back about a UK Garment importing Firm banning  3 exporters from India from supplying them Readymade Garments as they accused them of employing child labour.

I am a garment exporter, so I can understand the trauma these  Indian  exporters  must be going through.All their current orders stand still, their payments still due with  the buyers will be stopped, and they will come to ruin very soon, and no other European Buyer will buy from them, as they will be blacklisted.

Since the last 10 years or so, the  Western Countries have started to apply no child labour laws to exports from India.The big Importers and Chains, started to put their own conditions on the Exporters.In the Factory of the Exporter, there must be a fire exit,a pantry, a western style toilet for the staff, minimum wages chart to be put on the premisies, with the names of the people working, their ages,a nd the wages paid.and no child should be seen on the premises or in the vicinity.

Fine, I agree to some of the conditions.But actuall I don’t agree on any of them, coming to think of it.For all this, the exporter needs a very huge space, which in cities like Mumbai you just cant afford.In lower Parel, todays rates of offices in the Industrial Estates are over 20000 a square foot.That means that if an exporter needs 2000 sq feet of space, which is very less, the premises will cost him 4 crores.Just the basic premises, making these changes and office will set him backl by another 50 lakhs at least.

The interest on this 5 crores appx is 50 lakhs a year, and with the changes and wage increases they buyers insist on, should they not pay u the rate u want , that is a minimum profit of say 20 to 25% at least on yr produce ? No.They bargain like our locals, and make 2 exporters fight over the price.If A made the Sample , they will take quotations from B and C too.And sampling is to our business like  SUV’s are to petrol.Both guzzlers.A did the hardest job of sampling, and to send a  2 dollor sample which ultimately passed, and got orders, the cost to the exporter in sampling must be like 2000 lDollors at least.I know this, because I have been involved in this line for donkey’s years.And there are 100’s of samples being made,on which depends yr next years orders and profits , if any.

Here’s why I find most of the demands of the importers ridiculous.

1)      Child Labour – We order tea from the vendor, it is cheaper.For ourselves and the staff.Now how do we know if the vendor employs child labour.If that child is seen carrying Tea in yr office by the importer’s Rep, the above incident will happen.

2)      Embroidery , Dyeing,beadwork, gold printing, - so many such jobs on the garments we give on contract labour to outside vendors.How do we know what labour they employ ?

3)      English Toilet – The staff, who don’t have a toilet at home and live in chawls, where one toilet is shared by hundreds, where u have to take yr own water in a vessel, how the hell do they know how to use the Toilet with the Flush ?

4)      Minimum Wages – I think are  5000 or more set by the Whites.Why should I pay 5000/ when the staff is ready to work for 3000/-.and working at those rates in the neighbourhood , of other businessmen, who do local work ? Why would u pay 5000 to someone who says they are happy with 3000/- ?

In a way I agree there should not be child labour.But for that first we must stop the production of children by the poor who breed like rabbits.Sterilize them.But they need more kids , to supplement their income,so they don’t want to spend money on educating them like us.The fault lies with the parents of these children, and not the employers.

For all the NGO’s, who fight against child labour, have they taken any steps at the grassroot levels to tell and educate the parents against breeding children ? Or distributed condoms ? Or done anything other than raising slogans in 5 star hotels .Have they taken any kids and adopted them in their own plush homes to make them as good as their  own kids ?

Some things are easier said than done.This is interference in our internal matters by the foreigners, we have our problems, and we have to be competitive too in the international markets.If our contracters employ child labour, how is it  our problem? We are not the nation’s conscience keepers, we are businessmen, who work hard, pay our taxes, and pay our just dues to everyeone who does work for us.Why penalize us for circumstances that are not in our control in any which way.

If we go by this yardstick, there will be more child beggars than child labourers very soon, and we would have sold our soul to the foreigners, like we once did a few hundred years back.A child labourer is better  working than begging, as he gives good value to his employer for the money that he receives, if the choice is that he either begs or works.

All this for a Few Dollor More ? Since I am a small man with small means, I have stopped my exports, and I have invested the  money that was tied up in the business, and reaping the rewards of not working with these Westerners.To those who still wish to work with them, do so at yr own peril.

KAMAL MAHTANI