Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

From India to Regents Street and Michigan Avenue: How my shopping behaviour changed due to child labour awareness

In this paper, I will argue that child labour in India correlates with the parents income and that the government has a hard time to follow regulations because child labour often occurs in domestic households. . To find evidence for my thesis I want to look into the academic discourse that is going on about this topic. I can look at the sociological and anthropological discourse to find answers about how this kind of exploitation can exist in any society. I will focus on India because it seems that this country has the biggest problem when it comes to child labour. According to the ILO ( International Labour Organization) website, that there are around 250 million child workers in the world at the moment, alone 20-50 million of those are in India. Before I want to jump into my paper and argue for my thesis, I want to provide a small anecdote on how I started to become aware of child labour and how it affects us as consumers. Usually when I go out shopping for new clothing, the first thing that is on my mind is if I like the product and if I can afford it. This kind of consumer behaviour which I have adapted over a long period of time is probably shared by a lot of other people of my age and economic-social status. The older I got the more serious I started to think about cloths in general. Since I moved out of the house and started my student life I had to take care of my own laundry and therefore I had to think about buying cloths that would be easy to handle. The point I am trying to make is that there was a point in my life were I started to see clothing in a different perspective than I did before. At first, it was just for sheer pleasure and then I had to think about handling those products myself and my attitude changed quite a lot. I actually thought about what I was buying and became aware of it. I started to be more

Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

selective with my choice. I think this was my first step were I started to think critical about clothing in general. This was probably also the first time in my life were I started to become more aware of the existing social issues especially in the developing world because when I started to wash the clothes myself I realized that most of my products came from developing countries. I knew that I was very fortunate to have a parent that was able to provide for the whole family. This is not the case in other parts in the world and I knew that some children have to turn to crime or child labour just to get food and survive for at least a day. I wanted to understand what the reasons behind child labour were and this journey started all the way back in 2011. My first encounter with actual critical thinking towards clothing and the industry behind it was in front of a GAP store in London. While I was strolling down the endless shops on Regents Street, which could be compared to Michigan Avenue in Chicago, I came across the particular GAP store I mention earlier. I saw a woman with a nametag on her sweater. She was handing out flyers to passing pedestrians and as soon as I came closer she handed me one as well. It had a picture on it of young women who was sitting on the ground next to a pile of textiles and a knitting machine. The text said stop supporting child labour by big retail companies. There were different company logos on the flyer. One of them was GAP. The women that handed me the flyer told me that GAP was one of the biggest users of child labour and that I should not give them any of my money. This encounter happened back in 2011 but it stayed on my mind since then. My whole perspective on clothing changed from then on. I tried to be more careful when it came to deciding which store I want to buy my clothes. Even though I was aware that those brands use child labour for their production, I was never really that enthusiastic to find out more

Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

about the conditions those children are under what can be done against this problem. A couple of days before I started the WRD 104 writing class in the winter of 2013, I watched the German news show heute journal in which they talks about the current situation of child labour in India and other parts of the world. Somehow, this stayed in my head and I knew right away, this could be a topic I can write my research paper on. Now that I have explained the roots of this research paper let me get right into it. First, I want to look at the international retail companies that use child labour to their benefit without thinking about the effects that it might have on those children. For example, Forever 21, Aeropostale and Urban Outfitters , which all use child labour1 might think that child labour might be harsh on the children themselves but at least does children can earn some money. Those companies provide them with jobs. Opponents of labour regulations may argue that laws restrict people and families from earning an income and therefore are easy targets to exploit. One of the critical voices against child labour comes from R.H. Waghamode, an Indian journalist who studied the effects on child labour on those children. He argues that the long-term effects on children , such as traumas, who have been exposed to child labour from an early age might be even be harder than the short once. In his article he states that children working under the age of 14 in some way harms and exploits them physically, mentally and morally blocks them from education (Waghamode,7). It just shows that there might be some children, who might only work temporarily in a factory can be left with long-term traumas. Waghamode describes this kind of traumas that can go from sleeping disorders and waking up covered in sweat to having concentration issues in the long run as well as not being able to find another job later on (9).

According to recent study done by Business Pundit in May 2012

Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

I know that Indias growing population is a problem that reaches out to every kind of social classes and affects the poor people the most. I would argue that big companies like Urban Outfitters or Aeropostale are targeting families who grow up in poverty by promising them at least some sort of income. Usually young girls between the ages of 8-14 start working in those textile factories because they feel like that they need to provide for the families. I want to understand why these children are being forced into labour. I know that poverty plays the biggest part but I want to understand why companies can be so cruel by exploiting those who are already in a bad situation. The profit hungry companies cant just think about their income they have to think about their image as well. And if people find out that their clothes are being produces under those kind of circumstances they will probably decide to avoid the companies the same why I did. I found a very interesting article by Uma Kambhampati where she talks about the correlation between parental income and child labour. She argues in her journal article that an increase in the wages earned by fathers and mothers would help to decrease the work done by a child (Kambhampati,671). She and her research partner Rajan Raji concluded that parents who had an increase in their wages would lead to the fact that child labour in the family would automatically decrease. Another important factor according Kambhampti and Raji is the level of education the parents received. The higher their level of education, the lower are the chances of child labour in their families. I also looked at Indias legal system and I found a very promising article by Shilpa Thippeswamy. He argued in Legal Protection of Domestic Workers In India, that child labour is rooted in poverty and that children are being lured into labour by false promises

Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

from recruitment agents, family members, friends or employers (Thippeswamy,4). It just shows how bad the situation for those children really is. In his article Thippeswany also says a lot of children, especially young girls, working in domestic households are under the radar of the Indian government and therefore are being shield from any sort of protection laws. I therefore believe that the fault cant be entirely put on the Indian government. Because even though they made a lot of progress in developing new laws and regulations they have no chance of protecting the child workers. Those children are, as I have pointed out through the example of Thippeswany, usually hidden away in domestic households from the public and the government. Now I would like to bring in a primary research that will hopefully help to my argument for importance of consumer behaviour. What I found in my primary research process was a very motivating concept idea from Germany. The founder of this concept is Van Bo Le-Mentzel a German-Pilipino. His idea was to create a shoe that would be entirely produced with organic materials and without any need of child labour or other sorts of exploitation methods. Bo had this idea for a long time but he had no idea how he could make his idea into reality. Then he found out about the idea of crowd funding. What this basically means is that one person comes up with an idea and he shares this idea with other people ( the crowd) on the internet. If they like the idea they can donate as much money as they wish to support the project. In return, those donors have a say in important decision making for the project and of course, they can buy the finished product as well. Bo travelled to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to make sure that his shoe production really follows the guidelines he has set. He also reported back to the crowd so that they could follow all of the steps as well. At the end Bo managed to raise 30.000 euros and now the shoe is in the final production stage. The shoes are called Karma Chaks because they show a

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resemblance to the famous American shoe brand Converse, or Chucks how some people call them as well. The companies slogan is No plastic, No child labour, No exploitation and No bad Karma. You can buy a great looking pair of shoes and feel good about it. I havent bought a pair yet but I might do it next summer. Through this primary resource example, I wanted to demonstrate that there is an alternative to exploitation of child labour and that there are people who are actively doing something about it. Its probably not the cheapest way of production and it wont be as profitable as mass production under child labour but it is humane way. Another primary resource I found was Converse India ( not related to the American shoe brand) an NGO that focuses on creating purses for women out of old plastic bags. Anita and Shalabh Ahuja are the owners and founders of the company and they make sure that the workers are getting faire wages. The company itself is divided into two working groups. One of them is called the waste collectors. They go around and pick up all sorts of plastic bags from the streets. Then they bring them into the factories, the second group, the manufacturing staff creates new handbags out of them. The most important aspect of this production method is the idea of getting rid of the endless amount of plastic bags, that are over flooding Indias streets. The other idea behind it is that it provides people with jobs, which help them to get out of poverty and avoids their children turning to child labour. Like I have stated already, the owners of the company always make sure that their workers are being paid a fair amount. This brings me back to the example Ive brought up in an earlier paragraph, where I mentioned Kambhampati who spoke about the importance of the parents income to avoid their children from going into child labour.

Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

Both example show that there are alternatives to child labour and that the working conditions in the country of production dont have to be inhumane. I would personally pay a little more extra money for my clothes just to make sure that there were no children exploited. Thats why I started to support the brand Monkee Genes from the UK. They produce jeans out of organic material in a small town in the heart of England. Through their work, they want make sure that no harm or exploitation is being done to any workers. There slogan is No blood, No sweat and No tears , on every one of their pair of jeans there is a text that clearly states that those jeans had been produced without slave labour or child labour. When I wear those jeans I feel good not only because they are just very comfortable to wear but also because I know that Im not wearing a product that had been made by children. I am pretty sure that a lot of people would want to same way in their clothes too. During my research I found a lot of reason for why child labour exists but honestly there were not a lot of examples of how to help those children to avoid their situation. I mean there are the examples of providing their parents with a job and trying to avoid children being dragged into child labour in that way. However, I honestly found only one really good proposal to the problem in my research. Jha Munmun writes in her article that the only solution against child labour in India is compulsory education (206) for the children. She argues that by providing every child with an education, those children can be protected from being dragged into this marginalized section(Munmun,213). Munmum believes that education is the only way out of poverty into a better life. As easy, as the solution might sound at first I wonder why it cant be put into practice. Everybody knows that higher education can be the key to a successful in life. But usually those opportunities are not given because of government regulations and spending cuts. Especially in the developing world, we

Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

can see this tragedy. They have to spend their cuts to repay their debts. This problem could take up a whole other essay and therefor I wont get into any more details. At the end of this paper I can draw a resume and say that India has a very big problem fighting child labour. Those problems are not that easy to point out because there are just so many. What I can say is, that even though it is always easy enough to blame the government, it would be wrong to blame them all alone. One of the reasons I have found out was that there are many children working in the domestic household and therefore are under the radar of the legal system. Possible solutions are mandatory education and supporting the parents with fair paid jobs. As a consumer we can support NGOs that make sure that they produce under faire conditions. Maybe if we as consumers actively avoid companies that use child labour those companies have to start to rethink their strategies. A very important aspect that could be a potential starting point for the governments of the western world is to rethink their debt policies on developing nations. Somehow I wish that if those governments would agree on cancelling the debts for those countries, they would be on a better way to improve the social system where children are not being forced to work to support themselves and their families. I hope that this time comes sooner than later because every child should have the opportunity to sit on a school bench rather than in a toxic factory working. They should be able to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, and everything else they can dream of.

Work cited:
Jha, Munmun. "Child Workers In India: Context And Complexities." Human Rights Review 10.2 (2009): 205-218. Print. Kambhampati, Uma S., and Raji Rajan. "Does Child Work Decrease With Parental Income? The Luxury Axiom Revisited In India." European Journal Of Development Research 17.4 (2005): 649-680.Print. Thippeswamy, S. "Legal Protection Of Child Domestic Workers In India." Indian Streams Research Journal 3.2 (2013): 1-6.Print. Waghamode, R. H., and J. L. Kalyan. "Child Labour In India: An Analytical Approach." Indian Streams Research Journal 3.7 (2013): 1-11.Print.

Michael Herkner WRD 104 11/22/2013 Final Paper

ILO Newsroom. "ILO Global Report on Child Labour Cites 'alarming' Extent of Its Worst Forms." ILO Global Report on Child Labour Cites "alarming" Extent of Its Worst Forms (2013) Business Pundit, Gerry. "Business Pundit." Business Pundit RSS. Business Pundit, 1 May 212. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.