TAMIL NADU GARMENT INDUSTRY (MOSTLY) CHILD LABOR FREE BUT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENNAI 000694 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR G/TIP G. PATEL AND M. TAYLOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB PHUM ECON KCRM PGOV SOCI IN SUBJECT: TAMIL NADU GARMENT INDUSTRY (MOSTLY) CHILD LABOR FREE BUT SOME WORRY APPRENTICES ARE BONDED LABORERS ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Tirupur, a small city near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu's second largest city, is a remarkable economic success story. In the span of just a few decades, Tirupur's garment industry has grown to account for more than half of India's knitwear exports. With a rapid growth creating a demand for much unskilled and semi-skilled labor, problematic labor practices have plagued the industry. There has been progress, including the virtual elimination of child labor according to the government. Concerns remain, however, with attention now being paid to an apprenticeship system that some advocates feel amounts to bonded labor. Visiting Tirupur we discovered that the harsh interplay of poverty, gender roles, and traditions in India means that regulating, rather than eliminating, the practice may be the best way forward. END SUMMARY. GOVERNMENT SAYS DISTRICT IS CHILD LABOR FREE -------------- - ¶2. (SBU) In the past, child labor was considered "rampant" in Tirupur. (NOTE: We are using the Indian legal definition which prohibits work by children who have not reached their fourteenth birthday. END NOTE.) Today Coimbatore district (which includes Tirupur) is "child labor free," according to District Collector Neeraj Mittal. Mittal said that the phrase "child labor free" meant that child labor has been "basically" eliminated, but candidly acknowledged a very small number of children may be employed in the garment industry. In a separate meeting, officials from the Tirupur Exporters Association also told us that child labor, rampant a decade ago, has been eliminated among its members, who employ 300,000 workers and export worldwide, especially to the United States. ¶3. (SBU) Mittal said "the big companies know not to do it; they have got too much to lose." But, he added, some "marginal" businesses may employ one or two children who are close to their fourteenth birthday. He likened the challenge of totally eliminating child labor in these small textile units to tackling the problem of children working as domestic servants in India. Short of going door to door throughout the entire district, a task for which Mittal said he did not have the resources, it is impossible to ensure that there are absolutely zero children working. To highlight his commitment to doing everything within his power, he told us that the day prior to the meeting the government had conducted six raids on textile units in response to a media report about child labor in Tirupur. Mittal said of the thousands of workers in the facilities raided, only one child laborer was found. NGOS ACKNOWLEDGE DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENTS; BUT SAY SOME SMALL FACTORIES STILL EMPLOY CHILDREN -------------- --- ¶4. (SBU) NGO representatives largely agreed with Mittal's positive assessment of the child labor situation. A. Aloysius, Director of SAVE, an NGO which has worked on labor issues in Tirupur for more than ten years, told us child labor is no longer a major focus of his organization because it has been dramatically reduced in Tirupur. A SAVE report states: "the strength of children in the workforce has come down considerably in the last 5 years due to the activism of civil society organizations, both local and international and the increased intervention of the State." With child labor receding, Aloysius's organization has turned its attention to the problem of using apprenticeships to hire legally employable girls and young women under unfavorable circumstances (to be discussed later). ¶5. (SBU) C. Nambi, Director of the Center for Social Education and Development (CSED),was also positive though he added that he felt both Mittal and SAVE were overly optimistic. In a 1999 study based on interviews of families in Tirupur, CSED found that there were 40,000 child laborers in the industry. Nambi agreed that child labor in Tirupur had diminished but he told us he believes that there are still 10,000 children working in the garment industry today. When asked about the basis for this figure, he said it was only an estimate and that CSED had not actually conducted a follow up to the 1999 study. Nambi added that these children are working in small factories which service the Indian market. He said children do not work in the large factories which service the export market. ¶6. (SBU) Speaking about the recent government raid which netted only one child laborer, Nambi said District Collector Mittal only initiated the raid after CSED had gotten a national television channel to run a story on the situation. Nambi said CSED had first approached the District Collector but he had not taken any action. CHENNAI 00000694 002 OF 004 He also said the reason they only turned up one child laborer is that, against Nambi's advice to the District Collector's subordinates, the government conducted the raid the day after the important Indian holiday Diwali and most of the workers -- child laborers included -- had traveled to their home villages. APPRENTICESHIP OR BONDED LABOR? -------------- ¶7. (SBU) While Nambi and Aloysius agreed that Tirupur had made substantial strides against child labor, they were both concerned with a problematic new development in the garment industry: the "Sumangali" apprenticeship system. According to Aloysius, the use of the word sumangali -- a term used to describe a woman who will have a happy married life -- plays on poor Indian families' anxieties about getting their daughters married. The details vary from company to company, but the broad contours are the same across the industry. Girls and young women, ranging from fourteen to twenty years old, are recruited to work as apprentices in the garment industry. Recruiters assure parents that the girls will be kept safe, with housing provided in "company hostels" and that at the end of their apprenticeship they will receive a lump sum payment of roughly $600 USD to $900 USD which can be used to pay their dowry. The apprentices also receive a monthly wage, but it is thirty to fifty percent less than normal workers in the industry. Aloysius estimates that at least 200,000 young women are working under Sumangali-type schemes in Tamil Nadu. ¶8. (SBU) Aloysius said he thinks the Sumangali scheme is a form of bonded labor, but noted that "many people" do not agree with him. He acknowledged that it is not a classic example of bonded labor as there is no debt involved. But Aloysius said the employers hold the lump-sum payment due at the end of the apprenticeship over the young women in much the same way a debt is used against typical bonded laborers. Fear of losing the big payout at the end of their apprenticeship makes the girls and young women reluctant to complain about conditions in the factory or to assert their rights, he said. Aloysius further said that very few apprentices get paid the full amount due to them: most are pressured to quit during the final months of their tenure and their failure to serve the full period is used as an excuse to withhold the lump-sum payment. ¶9. (SBU) NGOs are primarily concerned, however, with the severe restrictions on the apprentices' freedom of movement. Aloysius said the majority of the apprentices live within the factory compound walls; some live in off-site hostels. (NOTE: Driving around Tirupur we were carefully scrutinized by security guards as we looked at several garment factories surrounded by ten-foot high walls. It is easy to imagine that the young girls and women working in those factories would feel imprisoned there. END NOTE.) In either case, he told us that apprentices cannot leave the factory premises or their hostel without permission and when they do so they are accompanied by company staff. The only manner in which an apprentice can leave without the employer accompanying them is if one of their parents comes and asks for their release. Aloysius explained that since most of the apprentices are migrants from other parts of Tamil Nadu or other states in India, it is rare that their parents actually come to visit during the three year period. ¶10. (SBU) Aloysius and one of SAVE's staff members raised a number of other concerns regarding treatment of the apprentices. Aloysius said the apprentices are verbally abused. When we asked about physical or sexual abuse, Aloysius said he was not aware of any such allegations. His colleague said it is "possible" that there is physical abuse but did not identify particular cases. Both said that the apprentices are regularly required to work substantial amounts of uncompensated or poorly compensated overtime. They said the apprentices are often driven to the point of physical exhaustion and that injuries frequently result from inattention brought on by their exhaustion. FORMER APPRENTICE DESCRIBES LIMITS ON FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT BUT CONTRADICTS CLAIMS OF OTHER SUMANGALI ABUSES -------------- -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Aloysius introduced us to eighteen year old Lakshmi, who SAVE recently helped leave her apprenticeship. Her story illustrates the complexities of the Sumangali system. Lakshmi, along with her mother, talked freely with us about her experience. She said she entered into the apprenticeship when she was sixteen years old and worked at the factory for more than two years. During her two years there she rarely left the factory premises and only with the permission of the female "warden" who was responsible for the apprentices. Lakshmi said the warden was "strict but nice." Apprentices worked eight hour shifts, six days a week. When asked CHENNAI 00000694 003 OF 004 what they did in their free time, Lakshmi said they played soccer and volleyball and watched television on the company premises. Lakshmi said the accommodations were nice, their meals good, and that she enjoyed the company of the other girls. She added that they were not physically abused, but that the warden and other supervisors did scold them harshly. She also said they injured themselves frequently and medical care was limited to basic first aid. ¶12. (SBU) Lakshmi said she ultimately decided to leave the factory because "her heart was heavy knowing that she couldn't leave" when she wanted to. Her mother came and got her released after Lakshmi had worked two years and four months of her three year commitment. After terminating her apprenticeship early, Lakshmi was paid 19,000 of the 25,000 rupees ($485 of the $637 USD) she was promised when she joined. She said she knew several apprentices who had left early and that they were paid similar pro rata portions of the lump-sum they were originally promised. ¶13. (SBU) When we asked the accompanying SAVE staff member about why the conditions Lakshmi experienced were much better than what Aloysius and he had described, he said that Lakshmi had worked in one of the biggest factories with a "good warden." The SAVE staff member admitted that the larger companies generally treat the apprentices well and that the abuses he and Aloysius described usually take place in smaller garment factories. GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: APPRENTICESHIP ARE LEGAL BUT POLICIES SHOULD BE CHANGED TO LIMIT ABUSES -------------- -- ¶14. (SBU) Our discussion with Neeraj Mittal, District Collector of Coimbatore, about the Sumangali apprenticeships revealed a knowledgeable and concerned government official. Mittal began by noting that "this is not a question of law enforcement" but of "whether the law should be changed" because the law clearly "permits these apprenticeships." He said he feels that the industry is using a loophole to its advantage: hiring the girls and young women as apprentices allows the companies to get around minimum wage laws. "Apprenticeship in this industry makes sense for six months, maybe a year. A three year apprenticeship is excessive, but it is permitted by law," Mittal told us. ¶15. (SBU) Regarding the complaints that many of the apprentices are required to work extra hours, Mittal candidly said the complaints are probably true. Having just returned from a sabbatical during which he studied in the United States, Mittal analogized the apprentices to teachers' assistants in U.S. universities. "The professor asks you to help out for a couple of hours and you say 'of course' because he has your assistantship in his hands. The same way," he said, "the apprentices are willing to work extra hours because they want the big payment at the end." Because of the potential for abuse, Mittal said he had recommended to the central labor authorities that a minimum wage be implemented for apprentices, "but that is a policy decision that I cannot make." TIRUPUR'S MIXED BAG: PROGRESS ON CHILD LABOR BUT SUMANGALI STEMS FROM POVERTY AND TRADITION -------------- --- ¶16. (SBU) COMMENT: Tirupur's garment industry shows the potential and the challenges of balancing human rights and development in India. A concerted effort led by NGOs with buy-in from industry and government has led to a substantial reduction, if not elimination, of child labor in the garment industry. But the demand for workers in Tirupur's garment factories remains high and the industry has exploited the apprenticeship provisions of Indian labor law to set up a system that allows them to employ large numbers of legally employable girls and young women at favorable wages. Most troublingly, the apprentices are denied at least some right to freedom of movement. ¶17. (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED. Poverty and traditional roles are critical factors in the development of the Sumangali system. Upon completion of compulsory education at age fourteen, girls from poor rural communities have few options. The apprenticeships are alluring to the girls and their families. They promise a job with a modest monthly salary, room and board, and the significant (by their standards) payout at the end which can be used for a dowry. Lakshmi's mother told us that, as a widow, the apprenticeship provided her daughter and her with an excellent opportunity. And the restrictions on the apprentices' freedom of movement are actually a big draw to the parents. Aloysius of SAVE said "even after all of our efforts families think this is a good idea; it keeps their girls cloistered, safe from getting pregnant. Plus, CHENNAI 00000694 004 OF 004 there is no agricultural employment for them." Poor families see the apprenticeship as a kind of tuition-free all-girls boarding school for their daughter, which even provides a dowry at the end of it all. Under these circumstances, eliminating Sumangali -- a laudable goal -- may be impractical. Rather, as Aloysius and Mittal advocate, regulating it to eliminate the abuses, may be the best way forward. END COMMENT. ¶18. (U) This message was coordinated with Embassy New Delhi. HOPPER