Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap's ethical image

**Al-khiyal** · 28th October 2007 23:23

October 28, 2007 -- Amitosh concentrates as he pulls the loops of thread through tiny plastic beads and sequins on the toddler's blouse he is making. Dripping with sweat, his hair is thinly coated in dust. In Hindi his name means 'happiness'. The hand-embroidered garment on which his tiny needle is working bears the distinctive logo of international fashion chain Gap. Amitosh is 10.

The hardships that blight his young life, exposed by an undercover Observer investigation* in the back streets of New Delhi, reveal a tragic consequence of the West's demand for cheap clothing. It exposes how, despite Gap's rigorous social audit systems launched in 2004 to weed out child labour in its production processes, the system is being abused by unscrupulous subcontractors. The result is that children, in this case working in conditions close to slavery, appear to still be making some of its clothes.

Gap's own policy is that if it discovers children being used by contractors to make its clothes that contractor must remove the child from the workplace, provide it with access to schooling and a wage, and guarantee the opportunity of work on reaching a legal working age.

It is a policy to stop the abuse of children. And in Amitosh's case it appears not to have succeeded. Sold into bonded labour by his family this summer, Amitosh works 16 hours a day hand-sewing clothing. Beside him on a wooden stool are his only belongings: a tattered comic, a penknife, a plastic comb and a torn blanket with an elephant motif.

'I was bought from my parents' village in [the northern state of] Bihar and taken to New Delhi by train,' he says. 'The men came looking for us in July. They had loudspeakers in the back of a car and told my parents that, if they sent me to work in the city, they won't have to work in the farms. My father was paid a fee for me and I was brought down with 40 other children. The journey took 30 hours and we weren't fed. I've been told I have to work off the fee the owner paid for me so I can go home, but I am working for free. I am a shaagird [a pupil]. The supervisor has told me because I am learning I don't get paid. It has been like this for four months.'

The derelict industrial unit in which Amitosh and half a dozen other children are working is smeared in filth, the corridors flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet.

Behind the youngsters huge piles of garments labelled Gap - complete with serial numbers for a new line that Gap concedes it has ordered for sale later in the year - lie completed in polythene sacks, with official packaging labels, all for export to Europe and the United States in time for Christmas.

Jivaj, who is from West Bengal and looks around 12, told The Observer that some of the boys in the sweatshop had been badly beaten. 'Our hours are hard and violence is used against us if we don't work hard enough. This is a big order for abroad, they keep telling us that.

'Last week, we spent four days working from dawn until about one o'clock in the morning the following day. I was so tired I felt sick,' he whispers, tears streaming down his face. 'If any of us cried we were hit with a rubber pipe. Some of the boys had oily cloths stuffed in our mouths as punishment.'

Manik, who is also working for free, claims - unconvincingly - to be 13. 'I want to work here. I have somewhere to sleep,' he says looking furtively behind him. 'The boss tells me I am learning. It is my duty to stay here. I'm learning to be a man and work. Eventually, I will make money and buy a house for my mother.'

The discovery of the sweatshop has the potential to cause major embarrassment for Gap. Last week, a spokesman admitted that children appeared to have been caught up in the production process and rather than risk selling garments made by children it vowed it would withdraw tens of thousands of items identified by The Observer.

He said: 'At Gap, we firmly believe that under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments. These allegations are deeply upsetting and we take this situation very seriously. All of our suppliers and their sub-contractors are required to guarantee that they will not use child labour to produce garments.

'It is clear that one of our vendors violated this agreement, and a full investigation is under way. After learning of this situation, we immediately took steps to stop this work order and to prevent the product from ever being sold in our stores. We are also convening a meeting of our suppliers where we will reinforce our prohibition on child labour.

'Gap Incorporated has a rigorous factory-monitoring programme in place and last year we revoked our approval of 23 factories for failing to comply with our standards.

'We are proud of this programme and we will continue to work with government, trade unions and other independent organisations to put an end to the use of child labour.'

In recent years Gap has made efforts to rebrand itself as a leader in ethical and socially responsible manufacturing, after previously being criticised for practices including the use of child labour.

With annual revenues of more than £8bn and endorsements from Madonna and Sex and The City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Gap has arguably become the most successful brand in high-street fashion. The latest face of the firm's advertising is the singer Joss Stone.

Founded in San Francisco in 1969 by Donald Fisher, now one of America's wealthiest businessmen, Gap operates more than 3,000 stores and franchises across the world. In Britain Gap, babyGap and GapKids are very successful, their own-brand jeans alone outselling their retail rivals' lines by three to one.

Last year, the company embarked on a huge advertising campaign surrounding 'Product Red', a charitable trust for Africa founded by the U2 singer Bono and backed by celebrities including Hollywood star Don Cheadle, singers Lenny Kravitz and Mary J Blige, Steven Spielberg and Penelope Cruz. As part of the fundraising endeavour, Gap launched a new, limited collection of clothing and accessories for men and women with Product Red branding, the profits from which are being channelled towards fighting Aids in the Third World.

On its website the company states that all individuals who work in garment factories deserve to be treated with dignity and are entitled to safe and fair working conditions and not since 2000, when a BBC Panorama investigation exposed the firm's working practices in Cambodia, have children been associated with the production of their brand.

Gap has huge contracts in India, which boasts one of the world's fastest-growing economies. But over the past decade, India has also become the world capital for child labour. According to the UN, child labour contributes an estimated 20 per cent of India's gross national product with 55 million children aged from five to 14 employed across the business and domestic sectors.

'Gap may be one of the best-known fashion brands with a public commitment to social responsibility, but the employment [by subcontractors ultimately supplying major international retail chains] of bonded child slaves as young as 10 in India's illegal sweatshops tells a different story,' says Bhuwan Ribhu, a Delhi lawyer and activist for the Global March Against Child Labour.

'The reality is that most major retail firms are in the same game, cutting costs and not considering the consequences. They should know by now what outsourcing to India means.

'It is an impossible task to track down all of these terrible sweatshops, particularly in the garment industry when you need little more than a basement or an attic crammed with small children to make a healthy profit.

'Some owners even hide the children in sacks and in carefully concealed mezzanine floors designed to dodge such raids,' he explains.

'Employing cheap labour without proper auditing and investigation of your contractor inevitably means children will be used somewhere along the chain. This may not be what they want to hear as they pull off fresh clothes from clean racks in stores but shoppers in the West should be thinking "Why am I only paying £30 for a hand-embroidered top. Who made it for such little cost? Is this top stained with a child's sweat?" That's what they need to ask themselves.'

* The investigation was carried out in partnership with WDR Germany.

Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap's ethical image

**Al-khiyal** · 28th October 2007 23:28

October 28, 2007 -- In Old Patna station, Bihar, the express train to Delhi represents a chaotic hope of better times. It is packed to bursting point with economic migrants. And many of them - at least 80 on board - are children, some as young as nine and 10, heading to the city to work in factories and sweatshops.

Almost 90 per cent of the children enslaved in New Delhi's garment sweatshops are from the Sitamarhi district of Bihar. This region, straddling the Nepalese border, has no industry; most inhabitants are illiterate and a majority of families have seven or eight children. Many families send their children away to Mumbai, Delhi or Surat to work.

Sitting on the floor of the filthy cattle-class compartment, his shirt buttonless, 10-year-old Mohammed is hungry and tired. Above all, he is confused. He told The Observer he had been approached a week earlier in the village of Ragarpura in the Sitamarhi district of Bihar by a man who introduced himself as Sadiq.

He dazzled them with still pictures of girls dancing in a Bollywood movie, then convinced their parents to let them go for the equivalent of £7 per child. He immediately sold the children on to 'Rakesh' who told the children he was their new owner.

'Sadiq was funny. He told us he would give us lots of sweets if we went with him to New Delhi and do two hours of light work every day,' Mohammed says. 'Rakesh won't tell us where we are going. We are frightened of him. I tried to tell a policeman in the station but he laughed. Rakesh threatened to stab me.'

In the station, a policeman looks at the children. 'Somebody in Bihar gives birth to them, and they become our headache!' he says. 'Good riddance to them all. They are Delhi's problem now.'

The children tricked into industrial slavery

**nesreen** · 29th October 2007 01:42

I was disgusted to read about it today . Big Names unfortunately are after money and profits not about the rights of the workers and whether they work in safe and decent environments .

**Bent_Bladi** · 29th October 2007 06:37

Oh my God!!

... what hypocrites....!!

they have this thing in GAP where if u buy a red shirt then you'll help to save the life of a child in africa... i guess indian kids aren't good enough for them.

for any company that does this to children and their families - may they go in severe debt and lose their money and sanity

**Al-khiyal** · 4th November 2007 20:01

November 4, 2007 -- In what would be the biggest commitment to ending child labour ever undertaken by a major retailer, Gap Inc is drawing up plans to label its products 'Sweatshop Free'.

The ambitious pledge, which would place the firm at the forefront of the battle to end sweatshops, comes in response to an undercover Observer investigation which last week exposed one of the firm's Indian suppliers employing children as young as 10 to make garments.

Yesterday, Gap's senior vice president, Stanley Raggio, flew from San Francisco to New Delhi to meet the anti-sweatshop charity the Global March Against Child Labour, to hammer out proposals to tackle child labour.

According to Bhuwan Ribhu, a lawyer from the charity, the US conglomerate set out a series of ambitious proposals including a move that would see it relabelling its garments to allow the consumer to directly track online exactly where they are made.

The system would closely mirror the highly successful RugMark programme which has largely eradicated child labour in India's carpet industry.

As an organisation operating independently of the carpet industry, RugMark certifies carpets bearing its label are free of illegal child labour. This is accomplished by monitoring looms and factories through surprise and random inspections.

Ribhu said: 'We spoke at length to Gap and they informed us they are looking at a certification system that marks a product with a label "child labour free". This would be a bold step as the firm would leave themselves open to prosecution if children were found making their clothes again. Gap also intimated to me that they are considering using independent monitoring of their suppliers in Asia and this would operate along similar lines to the RugMark programme. The firm is also calling on their competitors to adopt a similarly tough stance.'

He added: 'The Observer's report should act as a wake-up call for the entire industry and the business community at large. The industry should now come together and make a strong commitment against child labour and the trafficking of children for forced labour in their entire chain of supply and sourcing. This should not only be in words but in a clear and concrete plan of action.'

Speaking from San Francisco, Gap spokesman Bill Chandler confirmed yesterday's meeting between senior Gap executives and the Global March Against Child Labour and told The Observer the firm was laying down the groundwork for a major commitment to fight the problem.

'Gap Inc has had many conversations with experts in the field before and obviously since The Observer investigation,' he said. 'The company is open to new ideas; we have shown that in the last decade. We are open-minded, but at present discussions are ongoing and it is too early to outline the extent of our proposals.

'We genuinely appreciate that The Observer identified this subcontractor [using child labour], and we acted swiftly in this situation. Under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments.'

Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, said the firm's prohibition of child labour was non-negotiable.

Gap plans 'sweatshop free' labels