Child Labour

Child Labor and India's Football-making Industry

 

India is the world's second (following Pakistan) largest producer of footballs and other inflatable balls. Between April 1999 and February 2000, India's production reached almost US$ 18 million (Rs. 7,854. 76 lakhs). United Kingdom imported a total of US$ 6. 86 million for the same period. Other important European importing countries are France, Germany, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands. Besides inflatable balls, badminton rackets, shuttle cocks, cricket balls and bats, hockey sticks and different kinds of gloves and protective equipment are also manufactured. There are 364 sports goods exporters registered with the Sports Goods Export Promotion Council (SGEPC) in India.
According to the Sports Goods Manufacturers and Exporter's Association in India, the total number of persons working in the industry is about 30,000. A report by Christian Aid however gives a figure of around 300,000 people working in the industry, "either in the 1,500 factories and smaller manufacturing units or as subcontracted home-workers"

It is not fully clear how this large difference can be explained, but it can be assumed that the former figure does not include the home-based workers who are working for the manufacturers/exporters via the contractors. The number of home-based workers can only be roughly estimated as there are no reliable data on them yet. If the figure of 300,000 is correct this would mean that nine out of ten workers in the sports goods industry are in the informal, unorganized sector.

The V. V. Giri National Labour Institute of India (NLI), as commissioned in 1997 by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, studied the child labor situation in the Indian sports industry. Its report gives a detailed account of the child labor issue. Being the most comprehensive survey on the issue thus far, although only limited to the Jalandhar area, the report estimates that about ten thousand children are working in sports goods production. Of these about 1,350 are only working (and not going to school) while the rest are both working and school going. While 92% of the working children are stitching footballs, 8% of the child laborers in Jalandhar and its surrounding villages make other sports goods such as shin pads, cricket balls, rackets and shuttles.





The report makes a distinction between children who are only working (OW) and not going to school, children who are working and school going (WSG), children who are only school going (OSG) - although they might be doing households chores - and not working and not school going children (NWNSG).
The survey found that three out of four families reported children who are either only working or combining education with work.
Footballs are stitched by children from five years and older. However, 'only' 11% of the OW children are between five and nine, while 26% are between ten and twelve. The rest (63%) are thirteen or fourteen years old. Two-thirds of the WSG children are between five and twelve, indicating that most children start to stitch footballs when they are quite young. The work participation of boys and girls in stitching balls is almost the same.
The work intensity of the stitching children is high. A six-year-old 'only working child' spends on average seven and a half-hours stitching balls, while a thirteen-year-old child spends nine hours of work. Children who go to school and work have to shoulder a bigger work burden: nine hours when they are six and almost eleven hours when they are thirteen. It is also striking that a quarter of the OW children work at night, while 14% of the WSG children do so.

Most children leave school from ten years of age onwards. There is a relatively high rate of school attendance of children between five and nine years old. However, with the average number of working hours (besides school work) being more than three hours each day after the age of ten, the pressure builds up to leave school: "The work pressure finally leads to dropping out of school. The data suggests that 90% of drop-outs have turned into full-time workers. The NLI report states that more than half of the respondents say that financial problems or the need to assist in family work forced the children to leave school and start working full-time. More than a quarter of the respondents reported lack of interest in school as the main reason for dropping out. The NLI report sums up the impact of child work on education as follows: "Child work renders school education futile in the perception of both parents and children. Parents do not insist and children lose interest.

There are many factors to consider in this issue. The quality of schooling combined with the lack of school-going tradition (especially for girls), the pressure of work once started and the fact that most stitchers are socially discriminated 'Dalits' might ultimately be more important than the often, and perhaps more easily voiced, financial reasons to drop out.

According to representatives of the sports goods industry, the problem of child labor has been substantially reduced since the research was done by the NLI. In 1998, sports goods exporters formed the Sport Goods Foundation of India (SGFI). It now has thirty-two members. The members contribute 0. 25% of their earnings from manufacturing footballs to support an inspection and child labor rehabilitation program. Mr. S. Wasan, the SGFI secretary, said that the foundation expected an external monitoring group (Societe Generale de Surveillance or SGS) to find only a few working children, because of the increased awareness on the issue. This expectation is not surprising because SGS found only one child after the first round of monitoring almost 200 stitching locations and 70 children after covering almost 75% of the stitching locations in June 2001. Another SGFI official felt that the problem is now much less compared to two years ago. He particularly expected the number of 'only working children' to be very small now.

Legal Work

Football stitching by children, at whatever age, is not illegal. The Indian Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act of 1986, which bans child labor in certain hazardous industries or occupations like carpet weaving or matchmaking, does not consider stitching of footballs a hazardous occupation for children. But even if it did, it still would not affect child labor in the football industry since the law allows homework in all occupations, without any restrictions.
Almost five years ago FIFA agreed on a 'Code of Labour Practice' with the International Federation of Trade Unions (ICFTU) for FIFA licensed products, particularly footballs. The code however was never signed or implemented. Instead, programs in Pakistan and recently in India were started to eradicate child labor from the industry. In addition, the contracts signed by the football importing companies with FIFA contain clauses on labor conditions that are based on the Code of Conduct of the World Federation of Sporting Goods Industry. These clauses are less stringent than those in 'the original FIFA Code'. For example, provision on 'fair wages' is missing. Even these contracts however are violated in India on several points.

 Concluding Statement

The SGFI and its Steering Committee, in consultation with local communities, NGOs, unions and others, should find ways to implement the important conclusion of the NLI report. It is recommended that the contractor system be replaced by a system with effective monitoring and regulation by the State, employers and trade unions. In addition, the idea to form labor co-operatives should be further studied, and implemented with the help of NGOs and unions.
Bringing an end to the use of child labor and guaranteeing basic labor rights in the sports goods industry of course go beyond the influence of FIFA and other football associations. Therefore all companies, regardless of their relation to FIFA, should have a code of labor practice which is at least as good as the original FIFA Code and is independently monitored and verified.

Case Study on Sivakasi fireworks industry

CASE STUDY ON CHILD LABOUR :

Child labour is exploitation of underage children in any forms, forcing them to work illegally which harms or abuses them. This abuse may be physical, mental or sexual; depriving the children (child labourers) of their right of basic education. . According to the International Labour Organization(ILO), "child labour is where children are deprived of their childhood  because they are forced to work long hours for little or no money, deprived of education and in conditions harmful to their mental and physical development.”   It is present everywhere i.e. in developed, developing and underdeveloped world though ratios differ. Asia leads by 61% followed by Africa 32%. According to UNICEF, there are 250 million children aged between 5-14 years employed as child labour in developing countries out which 120 millions work full time.

Among the developing countries, India has the highest number of child labours under the age of 14 years which is approximately 12.6 millions. Children are engaged in every sector of economy like match stick making, fireworks, domestic labour, construction, carpet making industry, brick kilns, etc. one of the places where child labour is experienced the most is Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu.

i)Case study on Sivakasi fireworks industry

CHILDREN AT FIREWORK

Sivakasi is a small municipal town in Ramanathapuram district. In the immediate vicinity of the town are two other municipal areas, Thiruthangal and Sattur. It is famous for three types of industries – fireworks, match sticks and printing. 90% of India’s fireworks is produced here. There are nearly 450 fireworks  factories  in Sivakasi employing almost 40,000 workers directly and about 1 lakh indirectly such as paper tube making, wire cutting, box making in the country side. Due to lack of modern machines child labour is extensively used. Economic factor is also one of reasons responsible for child labour. Poverty forces parents to send their children to work in these industries. Employers take advantage of their economic condition and force them to work at low wages. According to official Harban Singh’s report which was conducted in 1976, in spite of working 12 hours a day younger children aged 4 – 10 earn an average of Rs. 2 per day. The older ones get maximum of Rs. 6 -7 per day. According to a magazine published by The Hindu in april 29-may 12, 2000, children earn around Rs. 20-30 per day. Talking about the working conditions, according to sources children are taken to industries like animals in buses filling almost 150-200 children in a bus. And they have to leave their house as early as 3a.m. in the morning and come back at 9p.m. at night. There are agents to make sure that they get up and go for work. Some children stay at home and work. Even they have to work for long hours. According to a magazine Sumathi age 11 of Ammapatti village rolls 2300 paper pipes a day for just Rs. 20 though she had been working for a year in a firewoks unit. Also Chellaiyan age 12 working in a factory in anaikuttam village earns Rs. 30 though working  12 hours a day. Expecting them to think about their health, education and personal growth at this situation is impossible.

            Education is nowhere in their life. They are unable to think beyond their food. It’s a fact that children are the future of any nation or community. If this condition of children prevails what can be expected for a country. According to International Labour Organization (ILO), if child labour will be banned and all children get proper education, world’s total income would be raised by nearly 22% over 20 years, which accounts for more than $4 trillion. Banning child labour will help in boosting the economy of a country. But the situation here is worse. Most working children in Sivakasi have not been to school. According to a sample survey conducted in 16 factories covering 4,181 children, 3,323 (79.48%) are illiterate ; 474 children (11.34%) were educated upto primary school level. Dropouts were 384 (9.2%).

         

          Health is very important. And children working in these factories suffer a lot due to the hazardous working conditions. Also they don’t have enough time and money to spend on health issues. Filling their stomach is their prime goal. Hence by the time they grow up they lose their health and are no longer like other normal people of their age. Asthma and TB are prevalent among 90 per cent of them who are involved in gun powder filling and are directly in contact with the chemical ingredients of crackers and matches.  These workers usually do not wear any protective clothes and their whole skin can be seen covered with the chemicals such as sulphur, aluminium powder and gun powder. “Snake Tablet” – one type of firework, which uses nitric acid, causes skin diseases. Working on this type of firework is considered to be highly dangerous for workers.

          The work children do from the early stage of their life can affect them in several ways. The following are some of the affects on children, positive on the left side and negative on the right.

         

Hence child labour should be removed soon to ensure basic rights of every child. It hinders their personality development.

Despite many laws framed for the children to protect them from the injustice done to them, not much progress has been seen. Laws are only made but practically it is not being followed.

The major domestic national laws include:

·  Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

·  Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933.

·  Factories Act, 1948.

·  Bidi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966.

·  Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.

·  Inter-state Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of

Service) Act-1979.

·  Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970.

·  Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

·  Plantation Labour Act, 1950.

·  Apprentices Act, 1961.

·  Shops and Establishment Act, 1961.

·  Shops and Commercial Establishment Act.

·  The Moter Transport Workers Act, 1952.

·  The Mines Act, 1952.

·  The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.

 The main reason for the still existing child labour may be corruption. Also child labour contributes a lot in the economy of a country especially for a developing and under developed countries. So removing child labour is really difficult in these countries though loss is for short duration. Removal of child labour ensures good future economy. Many NGOs have come up to fight for child labour and hence then on some positive progress has been seen. A NGO in delhi rescued around 450 children and helped them in rehabilliation. And then on child labour rescue is on full swing. But until government takes some real initiative it is not going to improve. Hence for the good future of our country government has to be responsible.