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In India’s T-shirt factory of the world, Covid-19 puts clock back 20 years on child labour
- The garment hub of Tiruppur in India employs 700,000 and exports up to US$4 billion annually to global brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Zara, and Gap
- Until recently, it had been making progress in eliminating child labour. Then Covid-19 came along
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Suma* turns the mustard-yellow sleeve inside-out, straightens the creases, and places it neatly on top of a pile. Next to it are two other piles – one for necks, and another for body pieces.
Sitting cross-legged on a floor mat, the 14-year-old works eight to nine hours every day. Her employer, Nicholas*, 51, stitches the sleeves and necks onto the bodies to make T-shirts. During a single day Suma will pile up parts for 300 T-shirts, and earn 150 rupees (US$2).
Suma started working with Nicholas last year after the Covid-19 pandemic hit India in March 2020. Her parents, daily wage labourers, lost work to the pandemic and have earned nothing for the past 10 months. To survive, they have borrowed US$1,600 from private lenders at an interest rate of 10 per cent per week.
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Working next to Suma are Mukul* and Manik*, two brothers from her neighbourhood, aged 12 and 13.
All three attended the neighbourhood government school, which has been shut throughout the pandemic. Suma has been attending classes three days a week since September 1, when the state government reopened schools for Grade 9 and above. Mukul and Manik, in lower grades, watch classes on a state-run television channel for half an hour everyday.
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“My parents don’t like me working. But, we have no choice,” Suma said, speaking in fluent English.
Life in a Child Labour Free Zone hasn’t been the same since the pandemic began.
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