Child Labour in Bt Cotton Seed Farms of North Gujarat Status Report for the Year 2008 Dakshini Rajasthan Majdoor Union, 6 MS Building, Dungarpur, Rajasthan Trafficking of tribal children from South Rajasthan and North Gujarat to Bt cottonseed farms of North Gujarat constitutes the largest instance of child labour trafficking in the country. Every year more than 200, 000 tribal workers migrate to Bt cotton seed plots of North Gujarat for two three months in the rainy season to undertake cross pollination work. Dakshini Rajasthan Majdoor Union (DRMU) has sought to unionise these workers and monitor the movement since last three years. This large workforce consists of primarily children and adolescents. The Union undertook a study in the year 2007 that estimated that adolescents below 18 years constituted 75 percent of the migrant workforce. Almost a third of the workforce comprised of children below 14 years (Khandelwal et al 2008). The Union considers the trafficking of children a serious violation of child and labour rights. It undertakes an extensive campaign against trafficking of child labour every year. The year 2008 saw intensive Government activity as well. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and State Governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat undertook many steps to stop trafficking of children. What has been the impact of all this flurry of activity? Has it led to reduction of child labour to any significant extent? This note seeks to answer these and other related questions. It is divided into four parts. Part one and two outline the steps taken by the Government and Civil Society respectively. Part III describes the status of child labour in Bt cotton seed farms in the year 2008. Part IV outlines agendas for future based on the experiences so far. I: Government Becomes Active Three different statutory bodies were involved in the attempts to reduce child labour in Bt cottonseed farms. These are National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and Labour Departments of the State Government of Rajasthan and Gujarat. (i) National Commission for Protection of Child Rights: The commission has to be credited with bringing the issue to the notice of both the state governments. The commission chairperson had attended state level public hearings on child labour last year. The Commission called a meeting in Delhi to discuss the issue and ask the state Governments to develop a strategy. A commission team also visited Dungarpur and held discussions with the local representatives. Finally, the commission members visited the two states just prior to beginning of the season to ensure that appropriate steps are taken and the action programme is implemented. (ii) State Government of Gujarat: The state Government of Gujarat led by the recently appointed Principal Secretary Labour was very proactive. The specific actions undertaken by it are listed below Action plan to eliminate child labour: The state labour department developed a comprehensive plan to eliminate child labour by the year 2010. Mahatma Gandhi Labour Institute coordinated this. Training of Staff in Child Labour Eradication Methodologies: The state labour department organised three day training of trainers in July at MGLI in
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Child Labour in Bt Cotton Seed Farms of North Gujarat Status Report for the Year 2008
Dakshini Rajasthan Majdoor Union, 6 MS Building, Dungarpur, Rajasthan
Trafficking of tribal children from South Rajasthan and North Gujarat to Bt
cottonseed farms of North Gujarat constitutes the largest instance of child labour
trafficking in the country. Every year more than 200, 000 tribal workers migrate to Bt
cotton seed plots of North Gujarat for two three months in the rainy season to
undertake cross pollination work. Dakshini Rajasthan Majdoor Union (DRMU) has
sought to unionise these workers and monitor the movement since last three years.
This large workforce consists of primarily children and adolescents. The Union
undertook a study in the year 2007 that estimated that adolescents below 18 years
constituted 75 percent of the migrant workforce. Almost a third of the workforce
comprised of children below 14 years (Khandelwal et al 2008).
The Union considers the trafficking of children a serious violation of child and labour
rights. It undertakes an extensive campaign against trafficking of child labour every
year. The year 2008 saw intensive Government activity as well. National Commission
for Protection of Child Rights and State Governments of Rajasthan and Gujarat
undertook many steps to stop trafficking of children. What has been the impact of all
this flurry of activity? Has it led to reduction of child labour to any significant extent?
This note seeks to answer these and other related questions. It is divided into four
parts. Part one and two outline the steps taken by the Government and Civil Society
respectively. Part III describes the status of child labour in Bt cotton seed farms in the
year 2008. Part IV outlines agendas for future based on the experiences so far.
I: Government Becomes Active Three different statutory bodies were involved in the attempts to reduce child labour
in Bt cottonseed farms. These are National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights, and Labour Departments of the State Government of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
(i) National Commission for Protection of Child Rights: The commission has to be
credited with bringing the issue to the notice of both the state governments. The
commission chairperson had attended state level public hearings on child labour last
year. The Commission called a meeting in Delhi to discuss the issue and ask the state
Governments to develop a strategy. A commission team also visited Dungarpur and
held discussions with the local representatives. Finally, the commission members
visited the two states just prior to beginning of the season to ensure that appropriate
steps are taken and the action programme is implemented.
(ii) State Government of Gujarat: The state Government of Gujarat led by the
recently appointed Principal Secretary Labour was very proactive. The specific
actions undertaken by it are listed below
Action plan to eliminate child labour: The state labour department developed a
comprehensive plan to eliminate child labour by the year 2010. Mahatma
Gandhi Labour Institute coordinated this.
Training of Staff in Child Labour Eradication Methodologies: The state labour
department organised three day training of trainers in July at MGLI in
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Ahmedabad. It was a major state level conclave in which experiences from
across the country were shared. The state level training was followed by
district level trainings.
Extensive inspections: The state labour department undertook extensive
inspections of all Bt cottonseed farms.
(iii) Rajasthan Government: The Rajasthan Labour Department also undertook steps
to address the issue.
Government Order: The state labour department issued a Government Order
asking the district administrations of affected districts to treat the movement of
child workers as child trafficking and take appropriate steps.
Formulation of task force at district level: District level task forces were
constituted in Udaipur and Dungarpur districts. The Union has been
designated as a member in both the districts.
Help lines were set up in both the districts as well as at the state headquarters.
II Union Action Continues
Every year, Dakshini Rajasthan Majdoor Union undertakes a campaign to check child
trafficking to Bt cottonseed farms. The campaign was undertaken this year also. The
significant features of the campaign were
(i) Public meetings: The Union organised a series of large public meetings to
sensitise the mates who carry workers on the issue. Meetings were organised on 5th
July, 15th July, and 25th July at Dungarpur. The number of participants in these
meetings ranged between 300 and 500. The last such meeting was held at 5th August
at Kesariya ji. Child labour was one of the main issues raised in these meetings. It was
emphasised in these meeting that children should not be recruited and transported.
This is detrimental to the children, society and is against the law as well. All the mates
were asked to sign an affidavit to the effect that they will not take children to Gujarat.
(ii) Check posts: As every year, DRMU set up nine check posts all along the
Rajasthan border with Gujarat. The check posts were set up at following points.
Sl District Checkpost
1 Udaipur Daiya
2 Garanwas
3 Rani
4 Jhajri
5 Dungarpur Ratanpur
6 Rasta Pal
7 Mandli
8 Sarthuna
9 Poonawada
(iii) Mobile team to check movement of child labour: Two mobile teams were set
up - one in Dungarpur and one in Udaipur. The Union received constant information
through its network related to movement of children. This information was then
passed on to the district authorities. Specific information on 31 vehicles carrying
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children was passed on to the Help Line set up by the Labour Department and directly
to Police Stations in some cases. However there was rarely any action by the
authorities to intercept vehicles. Wherever possible, the Union team intercepted
vehicles on its own as well. More than 50 vehicles carrying children were intercepted
in the year 2008, mostly in Udaipur.
(iii) Visits to destination area: A Union team was sent to Gujarat to check on the
status of workers in seed farms between 15-20 July. The team brought back a child
worker with it in a dramatic manifestation of the incidence of the problem.
(iv) Media campaign: A sustained media campaign was undertaken to highlight the
issue. Rajasthan Patrika, the leading daily newspaper of Rajasthan, covered the issue
in a major way and published daily reports. A sample is attached as Annexure 1.
III: Incidence and Status of child labour
(i) Incidence of child labour in seed farms Unfortunately, in spite of all this action, it can be definitely said that the trafficking of
children has not come to an end. This year, it was not possible for the Union or any
other agency to estimate the number the child labour due to hostile environment in
Gujarat. On the basis of available evidences, however, it is very difficult even to
emphatically assert that there has been a reduction in incidence of child labour.
Though precise data remains an issue for the year 2008 even for the Union, the
following evidences indicate towards the fact that the child labour trafficking for
cottonseed production continued in a major way this year too.
The year 2008 was a very difficult year for monitoring and evaluation of the child
labour trafficking due to state actions. What we found in our experience was that as
the administration has become active on the issue, it has become much more difficult
to detect children. The employers used several strategies to keep the children
invisible. The children were trained to run away on sight of any outsider. The farmers
kept strict vigil of the fields all the time and stopped outsiders from entering their
field and did not even hesitate to threaten an insistent visitor of legal action. It was
reported by the external monitor appointed by Monsanto that they could not visit seed
farms in Gujarat because of the explosive situation prevalent on fields. Below we
relate our experiences that substantiate what we have referred to above and also
provide evidences to the fact that child labour was trafficked to Gujarat.
(a) Union Mobile team rescues 357 children mainly from Udaipur district: As
mentioned in Part II, the Union had set up mobile teams as was done last year.
Whereas last year the mobile team was more successful in Dungarpur district, this
year it was more successful in Udaipur district. The Union teams intercepted a large
number of vehicles mainly in Udaipur district carrying children. A total of 357
children were rescued through Union action. The list of children released through
Union action is attached as Annexure 2. Primarily for reasons of opposition by vested
interests in the District of Dungarpur, the efforts in the district were negligible.
(b) Union team locates large number of child labour on cottonseed farms: The
Union teams visited Bt cottonseed plots at three different periods during 2008 season.
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Two of these were secret visits and one was an open visit. The members were able to
observe a large number of children working on the farms during the secret visits.
They also managed to photograph some of these children. However during the open
visit, even though the team was able to observe children from a distance, it could not
get near to them, as farmers would immediately come in the way. The open visit
ended in chaos as the team was gheraoed by an angry mob of farmers in Deodar town
of district Banaskantha. The incident is described in greater detail as it indicates the
status of things at ground. The Union teams visited 27 farms and observed a total of
191 children on these farms. The list of cottonseed farms visited by the Union and
number of children observed is given in Annexure 3. The photographs of children
working are also attached as Annexure 4.
(c) Employers forced Union team to sign on stamp paper that no child labour has
been found: The Union team visited Bt cottonseed areas in Sabarkantha and
Banaskantha during 10-12 September to meet its members and make an assessment of
child workers in seed farms. On 12th September, the team was passing through
Deodar town when it was accosted by a seed agent and asked to come to the Guest
House for discussions with farmers. The team was taken to the Guest House where
hundreds of farmers were called. The farmers surrounded the Union team and asked
them not to come to the area. The Union team was held hostage from 10 AM to 6 PM.
It was forced to sign a document on its own letterhead that was then notarised. The document was written in Gujarati. A copy of the document was not provided to
the Union team. The document stated that the Union did not find any child labour,
that the Union is responsible for losses incurred by farmers in their transactions with
middlemen. Rina Ben Parmar, a female Union worker was constantly abused in her
absence because she had taken the lead in filing a FIR in a case of sexual abuse by
farm owner at his seed farm. Ishwar bhai and Vela Sangram, major cottonseed
organisers, led the farmers groups. The Union subsequently lodged an FIR of the
incident in Deodar police station.
(d) Returning children lose lives and limb in accident: The fact that a large number
of children were trafficked to Gujarat is also substantiated by stray incidents of
accident and atrocities. On October 6, 2008, a jeep load of workers returning from
Gujarat after conclusion of the work met with an accident. There were a total of nine
workers in the Jeep, out of which three died and the rest were severely injured.
Among the dead and injured, there were six children. The Union has also received
complaints of sexual harassment of young girls further testifying that child trafficking
continued this year too in the similar exploitative and unsafe conditions as we had
noted in our report.
(e) Inspections by the Gujarat Labour Department to find child labour: Despite
the fact that the Gujarat government publicised the impending inspections for which
all the employers were ready and most of the inspections were done as a routine
matter, still they could register, as per information available to Union, a total of 36
cases of child labour.
(ii) Sexual exploitation of female workers on cottonseed farms The Union study in the year 2007 estimated that 42 percent workers on seed farms
were female. This translates into almost 80,000 girls on cottonseed farms. The girls
are without their parents. Most of the time, the contractor who has carried them comes
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back leaving them at the mercy of the employers. It needs to be remembered that most
of the workforce comprises of young children. The emerging situation can well be
guessed. Sexual exploitation of girls on Bt cottonseed farms is rampant. Very few
cases come into open because of sensitive nature of the issue. The Union has come to
know about a number of such cases this year. In three of these cases, complaints were
made to the Union and in two cases it was possible to initiate legal action including
filing of FIRs in respective police stations. These incidents are not standalone
incidents. These represent the tip of the iceberg. The incidents are described below.
Case 1: Bharti Ninama age 18 years: Repeated rape leading to pregnancy
Bharti Ninama d/o Natha age 18 years r/o of Village Raasta Pal, Undariya phala, PS
Dhambola, District Dungarpur Rajasthan. Victim was taken from her village by
Abhiraj Chaudhry r/o Village Khatasana, Taluka Visnagar, District Mahesana,
Gujarat for wage labour at his Bt cottonseed farm in April 07 against an advance
payment of Rs. 5000. There she was confined and repeatedly raped by the accused.
When the father of the victim phoned the accused on March 20, 08 asking him to send
his daughter home, the accused refused to do so saying that he has not yet recovered
his advance. Finally the victim was able to escape from confinement on March 31 and
reach home. The Union helped the victim file a police case at Vadnagar PS in
Mahesana district in Gujarat. The girl underwent medical tests in civil hospital
Mahesana. Pregnancy was confirmed and an abortion performed. The case is going on
the court.
Case 2: Suraj Kharadi age 14 years: Repeated rape
Daulat Ram Kharadi s/o Hakra r/o Kharbar village in Sarada tehsil of Udaipur went
to work in Bt cotton seed farm of Shera ji Piraji Darbar of village Khimana in Sihori
taluka of Banaskantha district of Gujarat on 29th July, 2008. He took along a group of
14 workers. This included his one son and two daughters. The elder of the two girls -
Suraj aged 16 years - was raped twice by Kiro, nephew of the farm owner. Suraj did
not even tell her brother about the two incidents. The matter came into open on 18th
September when Kiro came drunk in the night with his two friends and tried to drag
out Suraj. Her brother resisted and called his father Daulat Ram from Rajasthan. He
came to the farm and took back the whole group of 14 workers. However the group
was not paid its full wages. The workers had been promised Rs. 80 but were paid only
Rs. 52 per day. The minimum wage for agriculture work in Gujarat is Rs. 100. A FIR
has been filed in Sihori Police Station of district Banaskantha in Gujarat.
Case 3: Hanju d/o Bechar age 14 years: Deaf and dumb girl gets pregnant
Hanju Ahari r/o village Deopur is a 14 year old deaf and dumb girl from Kherwara
tehsil of Udaipur district who went to work in Bt cotton seed farms in Dehgam area
this year. She was raped leading to pregnancy. The girl's father complained to the
Union. However the contractor who took the group informed the employer. The
employer got the pregnancy aborted, and made a settlement with the father of the girl.
The case could not be pursued further.
Case 4: Kokila and Indira Ben: Harassed by brother of farm owner
Sarad Kokila ben Veeru bhai age 16 years and Sarad Ila ben Narayan age 15 years
both r/o Nani Pandoli taluka Meghraj Dist Sabarkantha went to work with a group of
13 workers at Bt cottonseed farm of Patel ramesh Devraj of village Jalmor in Deodar
taluka. The girls were constantly harassed by Shankar, the brother of farm owner.
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When the girls went to another farm to sleep, the brother followed them up there. He
woke them up in the middle of the night saying that the time has come to pluck the
male flowers. The girls complained to farm owner who chastised his brother. Later on
the girls left the farm after one month. They were not paid promised wages.
(iii) Political Opposition to Union in District Dungarpur The Union campaign against child trafficking has upset a number of vested interests
having financial stakes in child trafficking. In addition to the employers in Gujarat,
the trafficking of child labour benefits a number of local vested interests like taxi
operators, large contractors, and select local politicians. Operations of the Union have
affected these interests adversely. All these interest groups have come together now
and launched a virulent campaign against the Union. The group is being provided
financial backing by the Gujarat employers who hire child labour. This group
undertook a misinformation campaign against the Union through press. It has
submitted memoranda to the administration against the Union, filed spurious cases in
court and held a political conference against the Union. The Union activists were
threatened with violence and asked to stop operations. The group enjoys strong local
political support. The dominant faction of the local Congress Party in Dungarpur led
by the Dungarpur Zila Pramukh Tara Chandra Bhagora has come out in active support
of the vested interests opposing the Union.
IV: Conclusions and recommendations Perhaps a critical question at this juncture will be if the incidence of child labour has
come down? It is indeed very difficult to answer this question in precise terms. One
thing that can be said with certainty is that the child labour trafficking from
Dungarpur and Udaipur continued to Gujarat for cottonseed production and whatever
little evidences we have for the year 2008, it is substantial. In conclusion we may say:
The issue has attracted significant attention at the state, media, and civil
society level.
The state government departments are alive and sensitive to the issue and have
come out with impressive action plans.
The impressive state actions at the planning level have not translated into
effective action at the ground level. The number of cases framed by the state
Government of Gujarat is miniscule in comparison to the numbers working on
the field. Similarly in Rajasthan, the help line set up by the state government
did not prove effective in intercepting movement. Typically the Union used to
pass on information to help line from where it would be sent to Police and the
matter would rest there.
Sexual exploitation of minor girls at workplace is rampant. The work
conditions are highly insecure and children at complete mercy of farm owners
and their henchmen.
Intensive poverty in source areas is pushing out children into migratory work
streams at a very early age. The experience of Union activities this year in one
block illustrates this. Even though Union mobile team intercepted vehicles on
a daily basis, the movement of children did not stop.
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Recommendations
1. Movement against child labour and right to education: There is a need to work
with the families, elected representatives and administration to launch a massive
movement against child labour and right to effective education. This is the most
crucial aspect.
2. Need for joint GO NGO action in implementing of action plan: Even though
impressive action plans were drawn up, these have not got translated into equally
effective action. There is a need to introspect and formulate a joint action plan with
the concerned civil society members and organisations.
At Rajasthan level, there is need to set up mobile vigilance squads. In view of the
difficulty inherent in detecting children in work sites, it is best to intercept them in
source areas. This needs setting up of mobile squads that can respond immediately to
information. The Union has an extensive network and gets immediate information on
movement of children. However the police did not react saying that it has no
resources to respond immediately.
At Gujarat level, the Government inspections have not involved NGOs. The dates for
inspection are announced in advance. There is need to learn lessons from Mumbai
model where raids were carried out in secret on information provided by NGOs.
3. Need to develop a system to prevent rampant sexual exploitation of minor girls
at work place: Just as the issue of child labor has got highlighted, there is need to
highlight the issue of sexual exploitation at work place. This is a sensitive issue and
victims rarely come forward to complain. However the anecdotal evidence presented
above makes a strong case for developing consciousness on the issue and of taking
specific measures.
4. Need for an advocacy campaign against companies engaged in cottonseed
production: All cottonseed production is carried out through contract farming by
seed companies. Cheap child labor forms the bedrock of economy of cottonseed
production. The seed companies control production and get profits from the business.
There is a need to hold these cotton seed production companies responsible for
persistence of child labor. The Union is making some efforts in this regard. It is listing
seed companies as a respondent in minimum wages cases to be filed by it in labor
courts of Gujarat. However there is need for more steps against the seed companies.
5. Anti poverty measures in source areas: There is an urgent need to look at the
state of deprivation that exists in source areas that is forcing tribal households to send
out children in such large numbers. Possible steps include increase the number of days
of employment provided under NREG to 200 days and designating all tribal
households in TSP areas as BPL.
Annexure
1. Press clipping
2. List of children released by Union mobile teams
3. List of farms visited by Union teams in Gujarat
