EJF reports Children Behind Our Cotton

Children in some of the world’s largest cotton-producing countries are serving as underpaid, free or forced labourers to feed the global demand for textiles, a new report by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) reveals.

‘The Children Behind Our Cotton’ details the conditions endured by more than an estimated one million children, some as young as five, many suffering physical, verbal and sometimes sexual abuse.

The report includes the voices of cotton child labourers, who describe their schooling being sacrificed, beatings and extreme tiredness from carrying out heavily physical and demanding work over long hours and at risk from working with hazardous pesticides.

EJF field research in October 2007 in India discovered children in the fields during the spraying season. ‘Children were working on cotton plants that had been sprayed with chemicals only moments before, without any protection,’ Duncan Copeland, EJF campaigner, says. ‘Most of the children we interviewed complained of nasty side-effects like fainting and sickness from exposure to pesticides.’

China, India, Pakistan, Brazil, Uzbekistan and Turkey – six of the world’s top seven cotton producers – have been reported to use child labour in their cotton fields, and with Europe and North America accounting for roughly 75 per cent of world clothing imports, you can expect that much of the clothing on our high streets is the end result of child labour.

EJF is urging retailers and manufacturers to examine their supply chains and categorically guarantee that no child labour has been used at any stage in the production of their cotton goods.

‘Practical measures can swiftly be taken to ensure transparent sourcing of cotton products, such as a labelling scheme that identifies the country of origin of the cotton as well as the country of manufacture,’ says Juliette Williams, Programme Director of EJF. ‘The onus falls on actors throughout the supply chain, including the end consumer, to make sure our cotton is more sustainably and ethically produced.’