 |
Campaign for fair play is struggling for eradication of child labour from Indian Sport Industry. South Asian Coalition on child servitude, Bachao Andolan (Save the childhood Movement) and Peaple's Vigilance Committee on Human Rights are key co-ordinator.
About 300,000 people work in the industry, either in the 1,500 factories and smaller manufactring units or as subcontracted home workers. They produce 200 varieties of prodcts - fom boxing gloves to besketballs, from shuttlecocks to chess board. The brands are synonymouswit sporting style and success - names like Mitre and Umbro (footballs); Alfred Reader (Cricket balls); Gunn & Moore and Dunlop Slazenger (cricket bats and balls). In recent years Indian Companies have supplied equipment for a wide range of international competitions, including discuses for the Atlanta Olympics, tennis balls for the Davis Cup and stumps for Cricket's World Cup.
India's sporting goods industry had its beginnings in Sialkot, now part of Pakistan, in the 19th century. The initial demand was from British army officers stationed in the region. When colonial India was partitioned at independence in 1947, may of Sialkot's skilled craftsman migrated south. They establised new industrial centres in Jalandhar - in what is now the northern Indian stato of Punjab - and in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
India's sports-goods manufacturing operates at five levels. First there are the suppliers of prestige clients such as Adidas, Mitre and Umbro - bigger companies geared mainly to the export market whose factories directly employ hundreds of people. Then there are hundreds of smaller units - factories, workshops and - usually employing no more than a dozen workers each. These produce mainly for the domestic market but also manufacture either to order for the major exporters or for direct small-scale export.
Then there are the "middlemen" - go-betweens employed by the bigger companies to subcontract orders, especially in the production of hand-stitched inflatable balls. Their job is to collect materials requiring stitching from the factories, distribute them to the small manufecturing units or to individual stitchers, and return the stitched items on completion. The fourth cog in the wheel is those individual stitchers themselves, home workers employed mainly in inflantable ball production. Some obtain their materials directly from factories, but most realy on middlemen. Like the majority of workers in the industry, both the middlemen and the home stitcers are paid by piece rate rater than receiving a regular wage.
Finally there are the service industries - the rubber and thread factories, the rural tanneries supplying leather for cricket balls and gloves, the Kashmiri saw mills supplying willow clefts for crafting into cricket bats.
Campaign for fair play has found that Indian children - some as young as seven- are routinely stitching footballs for export to Europe. In total it has been estimated that there are over 20,000 child labourers working in the various units mainly located at Meerut (UP), Jalandhar (Punjab), Gurgaon (Haryana), Calcutta, Andaman & Nicobar and Jammu and manufacturing goods like footballs, cricket ball, hockey stick, bladders, sports jackets etc. to meet internal as well as external requirements.
Tanneries supplying leather to the main sport-goods companies exporting to West were also found to employ children illegally in hazardous conditions.
We believe that it is not possible to get rid of child labour overnight, but the pernicious forms should be tackled immediately. All the parties should aim for phased elimination ensuring that the interests of working children and their families is protected.
Here are a few suggestions regarding activities that could be taken up in support of this campaign:
for retailers, Importers and Exporters
- Encourage WFSGI to adopt a strong Code of Conduct with provisions for independent monotoring
for Sports Club, Association and Sports stars
- Work toward providing all kit and equipment from companies which are guaranteed child labour free and which meet internationally agreed labour standards
for Government
- It should play an active role in developing high ethical standards for corporate conduct in close consultation with businesses
- Devote a higher proportion of the budget to community develpment and poverty alleviation
- Allocate funds for rehabilitation and education of working children, including support for the ILO's International Program to Eradicate Child Labour (IPEC)
Others
-Initiate a lettere campaign demanding
1) an independent monitoring system guaranteeing child labour free sporting goods. These could be addressed to: a) Secretary, Sports Goods Export Promotion Council, E/6 Jhandewalan Extension, New Delhi 110 001, b) Justice VS Malimath, Member National Human Rights Commission, Patel Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001, c) ILO, 3rd Floor, East Court, Lodi Road, New Delhi 110003.
- Educate children and the players about the conditions of child labour as exists in the sporting goods industries. Consumers place demands only for the child labour free goods.
- Use media to reach out to the majority of people and enlist their support in the campaign.
The list of activities that could be undertaken is not exhaustive and you yourself can think of many more activities that could be effective in realising our objectives. We would highly appreciate if you could undertake any of the above mentioned activities and also keep us informed about the same.
In addition, any suggestions in this regard are welcome;
Address:
Campaign For Fair Play
Sa 4/2 A Daulatpur
Varanasi 221 002
UP india
Fax 91-542-342030
tel 91-542-385580/37012
Contact persone: Dr. Lenin Raghurrushi (coordinator of the Campaign)
|