Multinationals are profiting from child labour
Children working in a cotton field. © DWHH
The Bayer Group is one such corporation. In India, the Bayer subsidiary Proagro produces hybrid cottonseed using child labour. Last year around five hundred children were still working on Indian cottonseed farms according to an estimate by the Indian research institute Glocal Research and Consultancy Services. The parent company, Bayer Crop Science, based at Monheim in Germany, had pledged to abolish child labour among its suppliers from the 2005 planting season. This was announced in spring 2005 in an action plan called "Harvest of Happiness" and in talks with Deutsche Welthungerhilfe (German Agro Action).
Hazardous work
UNICEF has estimated that 70 to 90 million children are engaged in child labour in India. No other sector of agriculture has such a high proportion of child labour as the labour-intensive production of hybrid cottonseed. The children, who can work up to fourteen hours a day, are exposed to highly poisonous pesticides such as monocrotophos. These chemicals were still being sold by Bayer Crop Science in India last year. Around 70 per cent of children in the hybrid cottonseed industry are hired as bonded labourers. In other words, they are forced to work, often for many years, to pay off loans advanced to their indebted parents.
Complaint against Bayer
An official complaint against the Bayer Group was filed at the end of 2004 with Germany's Federal Economics Ministry by a number of non-governmental organisations, including Germanwatch, Global March and CBG. Bayer, which has an annual turnover of 18 million euros for 2004 in India and is the leading hybrid seed producer in the country, is accused of contravening the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises.
More information
Study (2004): Child labour in hybrid cottonseed production in Andhra Pradesh: recent developments
The Indian organisation M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF), based in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has been working in an exemplary manner on behalf of children since 1991.
The campaign is being supported by Alliance 2015, an affiliation of European aid organisations whose members include inter alia German Agro Action, Concern (Ireland) and Hivos (Netherlands).
Deutsche Welthungerhilfe e.V.
Sparkasse KölnBonn
Account No.: 1115
Bank Code: 370 501 98