The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Over 4 lakh children work in cotton seed farms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 01, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Over 4 lakh children work in cotton seed farms

K. Venkateshwarlu

HYDERABAD: Notwithstanding the series of ‘proactive’ steps taken so far to discourage the obnoxious practice of child labour, a study commissioned by five international agencies has revealed that over four lakh children continue to slog on hybrid cotton seed farms across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The multi-centric field survey in the latest cotton cultivation season of 2006-07, showed that 4,16,460 children under the age of 18, majority of them below 14, were employed in cottonseed farms in these four States, accounting for 92 percent of the total cotton production in the country. It is nearly double compared to 2,00,675 children in 2003-04 when figures for three States barring Tamil Nadu were available. A cause for concern is in most of these States, the ‘child bondage’ in such farms is on the rise. Gujarat, having the largest cottonseed production area, employed the maximum of 1,75,260 children, followed by Andhra Pradesh (1,37,600), Tamil Nadu (65,700) and Karnataka (47,500).

Davuluri Venkateswarlu, director of Hyderabad-based Global Research, which conducted the study, “Child bondage continues in Indian cotton supply chain” said the response from the State and the Central Governments and both multinational and national seed companies to this “modern form of child slavery”, had not been encouraging.

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