Project focus:
the garment industry in Tamil Nadu (South India)

The issue

Child labour is often difficult to detect and is a complex issue to address in a responsible manner. Although incidences are rarely reported in workplace auditing, corporate members suspected that child labour might be present in their supply chains, suspicions confirmed by NGO and trade union members.

Evidence suggested that co-ordinated measures such as removing children from work, provision of education for them, and support for their families and communities were most likely to yield results. With this in mind, we set up the project with the ultimate aim of eliminating child labour from the supply chain and contributing positively to the lives of the children affected and of their communities.

The goal

The aims are to help companies to identify the likely risk of child labour in their supply chains and to provide practical strategies for finding child labour and dealing with it in a credible and co-ordinated manner.

Key achievements and challenges

In late 2002 the Project Manager visited Tamil Nadu to learn from the ILO’s work on child labour there and to meet with potential trade union and NGO partners. The visit identified a number of useful lessons from the ILO’s experience and confirmed that local partners were willing to work with us in seeking to tackle the problems. A second visit was made in early 2003 by a tripartite delegation which hosted a meeting of ETI members’ suppliers, and visited a number of factories and schools providing examples of how child labour is currently being addressed, both within business and by trade unions and NGOs. Commitment was gained to work as part of a local tripartite forum. A follow-up visit by retailers, trade union and NGO representatives in late September formally launched the project in Tamil Nadu and established a local tripartite group to carry this work forward.