Staff Reporter | 18 Jun, 2008
Days after a British firm fired three exporters in Tirupur for allegedly engaging child workers, an exporters' body has said that garment export units had not been employing child labour.

Tirupur Exporters' Association president A. Sakthivel said garment export units had not been employing child labour.

He claimed that the embroidery and sequin work, for which children were employed, was carried out at a refugee camp in Bhavani Sagar dam near Erode district, without the knowledge of the export firm.

The sub-contractor who was entrusted with the work by export companies handed it over to families.

"We believe that the elders of the family got the job and their sons and daughters helped them in the work. The alleged work did not take place on the premises of export companies," Sakthivel claimed.

Meanwhile the sudden action by the British bargain retail chain, Primark, of firing three knitwear exporters of Tirupur for engaging child workers for embroidery and sequin work has come as a shock to the exporting community of the textile city.

The retail chain, which has been sourcing garments from over 50 vendors here for the last two decades, acted on an alert by BBC.

Terence Simon, Ethical Trade Manager of Primark for India and Bangladesh, refused to divulge the names of the garment units, terming it as "confidential."

He said action was taken against the three units after conducting its own internal audit at production units.

Third party audit firms appointed by major brands before placing orders often refuse to approve some of the factories for non-compliance with their code of ethical practice, but this is the first time a leading buyer is axing long-time vendors.

Most of the European buyers now insist on ethical practices such as eliminating the practice of engaging child workers, particular about providing fair wages, avoiding running units overtime and extending benefits to the workforce as per the laws of the land to place orders.

Stating that the factories were not aware of children being engaged for the work, Sakthivel said it was given as a 'humanitarian gesture' to refugee families.

A. Aloysius, director of Social Awareness and Voluntary Education (SAVE), a leading non-governmental organisation that runs 10 bridge schools to give education to children aged between age 9 and 14 in and around Tirupur, said the practice of employing children was not largely present in export firms here.

Though child labour had come down in Tirupur, the practice still prevailed in sub-contracting units and in a section of hosiery units that catered to the domestic market due to high migration, he added.