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No children on the farm (Sunday, Nov. 2, 2003 -- CropChoice news) --
Following allegations of wide-spread child labour in their business
activities, foreign and Indian agri-business firms pledge to reform
themselves. An update from The India Committe of the Netherlands.
October 2003 - Seed multinationals Monsanto, Emergent Genetics, Hindustan
Lever, Syngenta, Advanta and Proagro (a subsidiary of Bayer) as well as some
big Indian seed companies, have agreed to co-operate with the MV Foundation
in Andhra Pradesh - Magsaysay award winner Dr Shantha Sinha is the group's
general secretary - to eliminate child labour from the cotton seed industry.
The companies will come up with a concrete proposal shortly.
This was the outcome of a meeting between the companies and the MV
Foundation (MVF) in September in Hyberabad. The outcome is a real
breakthrough in view of the ongoing debate on the issue. The companies who
were present are all members of the ‘Association of Seed Industry (ASI). The
annual assembly of ASI also passed a resolution on September 13th ‘to
pro-actively discourage directly and through its members the practice of
child labour in hybrid cotton seed production and further take effective
steps along with other stakeholders towards eradication of this evil from
the hybrid cotton seed industry’.
These developments took place four to five months after the publication of a
report on child labour in hybrid cotton seed production by the India
Committee of the Netherlands (ICN). It was revealed that almost 250,000
children under fourteen years of age, mainly girls, work on hybrid cotton
farms in Andhra Pradesh for long hours under hazardous conditions.
Dr. Shantha Sinha , secretary of the MV Foundation and chairperson of the
meeting, wrote to ICN: "‘all companies recognised that children are being
employed in the farms to which they have sub-contracted seed production.
They also recognise that it is part of their corporate social responsibility
to correct the situation"’. She told Global Ethics Monitor: "all of them
agreed for the first time they were responsible, which was a very big gain."
Swiss seed multinational Syngenta, after having met MVF in June 2003, had
agreed to contact other seed majors to set up a joint monitoring effort in
collaboration with the MV Foundation. Paswan Malik, head of Syngenta Seeds
India, said that the formation of the group in September ‘was an admission
on behalf of the companies that they had responsibility for the actions of
their contractors’.
Also Ranjana Smetaceck, spokeswoman of Monsanto India, stated while
referring to the joint meeting: "‘We consider this our responsibility as
everyone else would around the table". She added that it is a ‘pretty
realistic target’ to eradicate child labour from the Indian hybrid cotton
seed production in the coming six months. However, President Hugh Grant of
Monsanto writes in a letter of September 18 2003 to the Washington-based
International Labour Rights Fund that, being a minority owner of the Indian
company Mahyco, they 'encourage Mahyco to discourage inappropriate child
labour practices'. No reference is made to Monsanto's participation in the
meeting in Hyderabad.
Unilever and Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) - its Indian subsidiary that
markets several popular brand-name products, e.g. Close-Up, Surf, and
Lipton - have rejected the accusation of using child labour in hybrid cotton
seed production. Unilever stated that it made sure that its suppliers
complied with the agreement not to use child labour. Both HLL and ‘Paras’
(in which HLL now has a 26% share) were present in Hyderabad.
It was agreed in the meeting on 7th of September that the Association of
Seed Industry would set up a Child Labour Eradication Group, including a
representative from every company, that will conduct internal monitoring.
This group will also co-operate with MV Foundation and others to design a
collaborative work plan and facilitate external monitoring.
According to Dr. Sinha's communication to ICN, this would include giving
lists of farmers contracted by companies to MVF and monitoring of child
labour through their local Child Rights Protection Committees. In addition
training programmes, exposure visits and public meetings are envisaged. The
MV Foundation also has a long and successful experience in mobilising
communities against child labour and preparing working children to enter
full-time formal education. During the last twelve years around 250,000
children have thus been withdrawn from work and entered into schools. MVF's
view that ‘no child should work and every child should be in full-time
education’ has also become the policy of the government Andhra Pradesh.
In March 2004 there will be a new meeting of companies and MV Foundation
together to take stock of the progress made. The India Committee of the
Netherlands, Amnesty International Netherlands, Novib/Oxfam Netherlands and
FNV Mondiaal will continue to monitor the results of the agreement reached
with the MV Foundation and the resolution of the Association of Seed Industry.
Gerard Oonk, The India Committee of the Netherlands
October 2003
The India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) is an independent NGO which
informs the public in the Netherlands about India and how social, economic
and political developments in the West influence the daily lives of millions
of Indians. ICN's website is at http://www.indianet.nl
Source: http://www.indiatogether.org/2003/oct/chi-cropmnc.htm
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