What not to wear: Cotton and Child slavery

Topics:

Start: 09/06/2009 - 7:00pm

End: 09/06/2009 - 9:50pm

Schools are closed down for the duration of the cotton harvest and children, some as young as ten years old, are sent to the fields to pick cotton by hand for little or no pay. Students who fail to meet their targets or refuse to work are reportedly punished with detentions, beatings or can face expulsion from school. Human rights groups estimate that up to 200,000 children are involved each year.

This discussion will focus on what can be done to end the use of forced labour within the cotton industry. Considering the action taken by some retailers to ban Uzbek cotton from their products, why do other retailers continue to use it? How can we as consumers ensure that we are not inadvertently contributing to the problem?

Panel:

* Lucy Siegle, journalist, author and presenter (chair)
* Joanna Ewart-James, Anti Slavery International
* Juliette Williams, The Environmental Justice Foundation
* Steve Grinter, International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers' Federation
* Lauren Orme, Marks & Spencer (invited) This event is organised by Anti-Slavery International, Amnesty International and the Environmental Justice Foundation.

The event is free of charge. You can book your place online by going to www.amnesty.org.uk/events_details.asp?ID=1202

You can find out more about our campaign against the use of child slavery in the Uzbek cotton industry at www.antislavery.org/homepage/campaign/Uzbekistan_cotton_industry.htm

Calendar

Uzbekistan article in The Guardian

Submitted by Andrew. on June 6, 2009 - 12:27pm.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/24/retail-ethicalbusiness

In a bid to eliminate child

Submitted by jhonson567 on June 19, 2009 - 6:24am.

In a bid to eliminate child labour, especially in the cotton fields, the Association of Seed Industry (ASI) is forming mandal-level teams consisting of production executives from its member companies in Kurnool and Mehboobnagar districts from this month. The teams will conduct surprise checks in the fields to identify farmers who use small children as labourers in the cotton fields.
ASI is also working on a incentive scheme at the village level(Here is one point to be noted. They child have travel insurance packages or not?) rewarding those villages which eliminate child labour in the cotton production fields. To this end, village elders will be involved in implementing the scheme so that adequate local supervision is possible to check child labour, said a release from ASI.