SCDigest Editorial Staff

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While no one is in favor of child labor in a general sense, the scenario is not as clean as various corporate ethics policies may make it seem. What Do You Say? Click Here to Send Us Your Comments Click Here to See Reader Feedback

As watchdog group pressure continues to be strong on the offshore supply chains of Western companies in terms of environmental issues (see Will Environmental Groups Target Western Companies over Pollution Issues in Chinese Manufacturing?) and “Fair Trade” labor pay and conditions, many of these Western companies may unknowingly be dependent, in part, on child labor to produce their products, especially in the agricultural sector.

What to do about it? That’s a tougher question.

A few weeks ago, a Forbes magazine cover story said there was more child labor involved in offshore countries than many Western companies realize – or, in some cases, probably they would just prefer not to know.

“Every time you buy an imported handmade carpet, an embroidered pair of jeans, a beaded purse, a decorated box or a soccer ball, there's a good chance you're acquiring something fashioned by a child,” the Forbes article noted. “Such goods are available in places like GapKids, Macy's, ABC Carpet & Home, Ikea, Lowe's and Home Depot.”

But, while no one is in favor of child labor in a general sense, the scenario is not as clean as various corporate ethics policies may make it seem. The 20 cents per hour a child laborer may earn working in the agricultural sector in India can be an important contribution to a family income that is barely enough to keep a subsistence lifestyle. Take it away, and the family falls into deeper poverty.

Laws in most low-cost countries prohibit child labor (generally defined as under the age of 14), with some exceptions in the agricultural sector. But local authorities often look the other way. That means an 11-year old child may be working long hours in an Indian cotton field to harvest a crop that eventually finds its way into a t-shirt on a major US retail chain’s shelf.

The UN International Labor Organization estimates that 7 out of 10 child laborers today work in the agricultural sector, versus just 9% in manufacturing, as greater focus and enforcement in the past 15 years has greatly reduced the number of kids toiling in factories in Asia and elsewhere.

(Sourcing and Procurement Article - Continued Below)

Still, there are more than 200 million child laborers around the globe, the UN estimates, with especially high number in some Asian and African countries, as shown in the graphic below.

Source: Forbes Magazine

In some cases, low-cost country suppliers say that the relentless pressure by Western companies to buy at lower costs sometimes means they have no choice but to use child labor in order to meet required price points. The alternative: lose the business, throwing the parents out of work as well.

Last October, a New Delhi labor rights group called Global March Against Child Labor tipped off a British newspaper that more than a dozen kids were working 16 hours a day at a subcontractor embroidering blouses for a prime vendor of GapKids.

After the paper ran the story, The Gap, forced the firing of the subcontractor and placed the prime vendor on probation. The chain’s buyers also met with other suppliers to reiterate its zero tolerance policy on child labor.

But agriculture is even harder to deal with than manufacturing, in part because of the more complex supply chain connections between the products produced with child labor and the ultimate consumer products that use these farm goods.

What is really best for the local families is also often murky. As the Forbes articles notes, many “labor organizations can't agree on how to ameliorate the situation. Some say that children of poor families have to work in order to make ends meet and that the government should offer them night classes to prepare them for better jobs.”

How big a problem do you think child labor may be in the low-cost country supply chain? Should Western companies have a zero tolerance policy? Or are the dynamics, especially in the agricultural sector, more complicated than that? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.