Not Made by Children

Lead Partner: Global March Against Child Labour (Foundation)

Project Partners: Developmental Initiatives for Social Causes (DISC), Association for Voluntary Action (AVA) – Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA)

Project Location: India (NCR, Bangalore, Tirupur)

Project Description

Not Made by Children aims to contribute to the development of a responsible and accountable garment supply chain in three garment clusters in India (National Capital Region, Bangalore and Tirupur) by the eliminating of the worst forms of child labour and trafficking for forced labour. It envisages strengthening the efforts against child labour and trafficking for forced labour through the improvement of inspection and monitoring processes in the garment supply chain, coordinating with law enforcement agencies for rescue/withdrawal and rehabilitation of child labourers in the garment supply chain, promoting decent work for adults, sensitizing garment workers and subcontractors for streamlining industrial relations, community sensitization in source areas of child trafficking, and raising awareness of garment consumers in UK and India in promoting ethical consumerism.

Specifically, the project will enhance the capacities of 30 labour inspectors in child labour inspection and monitoring, raise awareness of workers’ rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, among 100,000 garment workers and 200 manufacturers and sub-contractors, withdraw/rescue an estimated 1,400 child labourers from hazardous working conditions in the garment manufacturing sector, sensitize families in the communities of source areas of trafficking, and create a child labour free hub tackle child labour and other labour rights’ violations in the informal segment of the garment supply chain.

The project expects to scale up its existing programmatic interventions in the garment manufacturing sector through:

• enhanced coordination between all the stakeholders of the Multi-stakeholder Garment Steering Group on Child Labour facilitated by the Global March to strengthen a sector-wide effort to implement improved workplace and business practices
  • strengthening the labour inspectorate’s capacity to inspect and monitor violations of child labour in the garment supply chain through training materials/programmes
• generating awareness of core labour standards across supply chains, through outreach initiatives and dialogue with workers and sub-contractors, including trade union organising and collective bargaining
• coordinating with law enforcement agencies and administrative authorities for withdrawal and rehabilitation of child labourers from garment supply chains, transitioning them through the state education system and skills training programmes as appropriate
• creating a model child labour free hub to tackle child labour and other labour rights’ violations in the informal segment of the garment supply chain
• raising awareness of garment consumers in UK and India for promoting ethical consumerism and action with regard to child labour elimination and promotion of decent working conditions
• developing a comprehensive tool kit on the basis of lessons learned from the project, to inform and guide multi-stakeholder, sector-wide approaches for sustainable solutions to eliminate child labour, forced labour and promote decent work

More details about the project