Family Labour

I read a news story a few days ago about an Irish company (Primark) that cancelled a huge order from a knitwear exporter in Tirupur because they had heard the exporter was using child labour. It turns out that the export unit itself doesn't employ anyone underage, but they had outsourced some embroidery to a refugee camp where families were working together to complete the job. A follow up article the next day revealed that while children were present when the embroidery was being done, they were not actually doing any of the embroidery themselves. However a story like this has the potential to make Primark look like an exploiter of cheap labour, so the only decision left for the company was to cancel all their orders.

The first thing that struck me when I read the article was how family labour in a traditional setting can easily be misinterpreted as a system that forces children to work from a young age. Some of our traditional systems are at conflict with today’s laws and “industry standards”, and it is difficult for grass roots level organizations to meet the standards.

Now before I am misinterpreted, let me clarify that I am not for one second condoning child labour. I am anti child labour, anti sweat shop, and pro healthy and sanitary working conditions. I also think that for large factory-like environments (such as the exporter in Tirupur) having an acceptable standard is a good thing. However there is a difference between a company employing children for labour versus a family working on something where children are occasionally asked to chip in. With traditional textile crafts that are handed down from generation to generation, it would be impossible for the children to never be involved in the process while growing up.

Take for example my leheria supplier whose house and factory I visited last year. My supplier’s father had worn a national award for his leheria (tie-dye) work and since then the family has been invited to craft exhibitions all over India. My supplier must have been exposed to the craft at a young age but I don’t know the details of when he started working for his father’s company. I’m using the word “company” very loosely here- they live in an intricate weave of small lanes in a large neigbourhood where every house doubles as a mini-factory or store of some sort. The ground floor of their house (one large room and a shed) is their factory, where fabric is stored, tie-dyed, dried, and packed. The family lives upstairs, but during the day the children wander around the shed playing with the dyes and the older children may help with a few tasks on a Saturday morning. For the most part the work is done by the two sons (both in their 40s) and a few of their employees.

Aside from my selfish interest in wanting the next generation to learn the ropes so that Brass Tacks will always have a leheria supplier, they too have dreams of growing their business and that would have to involve help from family. Would the operations going on in their hall and shed pass any international standard for health and labour conditions? I’m not sure, but I do know that it would take time, years of good business and exposure for them to have nicer facilities in a larger building with an environmentally friendly way of disposing their dyes, and large, safe utensils for dyeing their fabric (right now they boil the dye and dip the cloth into it using thick rubber gloves). Pass or fail, their craft cannot be learned easily and since it is a family business, it would make sense that their children learn the craft at a young age. That’s not child labour, it’s called training.

I can only hope that with time and with the help of organizations and buyers (like Brass Tacks), my suppliers can have a nicer set up with better systems and a creative way to show visitors that the children are not working full time. Because if my suppliers want their business to grow and supply fabric at a large scale, they will have to find a way to pass these standards.

Below are a few pictures of the work done at my supplier's workshop in Jaipur.