Within a month-and-a-half of a sting operation by a British daily that alleged the use of child labour by a sub-contractor in India working for global clothing retailer GAP, a top official of one of GAP’s independent inspection agencies — that ascertain whether global suppliers follow fair trade practices — met Minister of State for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes in Delhi on Friday.According to sources, while reiterating that the use of child labour remained a concern, the agency official did concede that by virtue of the nature of some work, it was sub-contracted to home workers. With regard to such home workers, the agency has sought the ministry’s help in inspecting their work in a correct manner. More importantly, it has also sought some intervention by the Labour Ministry to get the Union Human Resources Development Ministry to try and ensure that children working at home get access to schooling and attend classes regularly. Fernandes has asked his officials to look into these requests.The Government has been working to dispel the ‘propaganda’ emanating from Western nations about sweatshops employing child labour. Recently, the Karnataka High Court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against seven Dutch activists who posted allegedly doctored photographic evidence of child labour being used by another supplier for a fashion brand.To prevent countries from further using the guise of ‘child labour’ as a non-tariff barrier to block India’s growing exports, the Ministries of Commerce, Labour as well as Women and Child Development had charted out an action plan last month. The progress of the plan, which includes asking suppliers to ‘trace’ the presence of any child labour across the supply chain, is to be reviewed every quarter.When the allegations by the British daily appeared, GAP had put the supplier in question on a six-month probation while slashing orders by half. Last month, it had also announced a $200 million ‘donation’ to improve Indian factories’ conditions and tighten its own procurement processes. The inspection agency official from Europe assured Fernandes that GAP is committed to not only continue sourcing from Indian vendors, but also expand the scale of procurement further.
