Multinationals involved in cottonseed production in India have rejected
suggestions that they are turning a blind eye to the use of child
labour.
A group of non-governmental organizations has claimed in a new report
that leading companies in the field are not doing enough to tackle the
problem, but one of the main targets, Bayer, has said it is ‘strictly
against child labour’ and has introduced a pilot project to improve the
lives of Indian children in employment and to offer them a better
future. It has also demanded that the companies from which they source
sign an agreement not to employ children.
Monsanto has also said it will ‘not tolerate any form of exploitative
child labour’ and will ensure that the education of legally employed
minors is not compromised. The company says it will continue to
participate in a multi-stakeholder programme with representatives of
the seed industry, NGOs, state and local government and the
International Labour Organization. At the same time it will continue to
inspect its sub-contracted fields for child labour.
The company said: ‘We acknowledge that not all of our efforts resulted
in meaningful exchange. For example, the creative learning centres fell
short of our expectations but we learned a great deal and will
incorporate those learnings into future education initiatives.
‘Child labour is an extremely complex problem. Solutions to this
problem will require the co-ordinated efforts of not only multinational
companies like Monsanto but domestic companies, their business partners
and suppliers, local and international NGOs, and local and state
governments in India.
‘In addition to commitment from these various stakeholders, it will take time to resolve.’
The NGO report, Seeds of change, was published by the International
Labour Rights Fund, OECD Watch, the India Committee of the Netherlands,
Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and Enie Welt Netz NTRW.
The investigators claim that in 2005-06 about 20 per cent of the
workers on the farms of Bayer’s cotton seed suppliers in Andhra Pradesh
and ten per cent of those employed in Monsanto’s supplier companies
were children under 15. A year later the number on the Bayer farms had
fallen to 11 per cent and the figure on the Monsanto farms was five per
cent.
The report records that Bayer and Monsanto had tackled the problem in
Andhra Pradesh but regretted that there was no improvement in other
states including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
