terug/back
Onderstaand artikel is gepubliceerd door/published by: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 31-10-2005 (www.business-humanrights.org)

press release:
India Committee of the Netherlands
Companies perpetuate child labour in India by low prices and flawed inspection



Multinational and Indian seed companies are paying Indian farmers who are producing their cotton seed almost 40% too little to enable them to hire adults for the local minimum wage...instead of children. The companies are multinationals like Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta but also Indian companies like Nuziveedu Seeds, Raasi Seeds and Ankur Seeds...Companies like Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta do acknowledge that there is substantial child labour in their supply chain and that they are at least partly responsible for that. They do however deny that there is a relation with the price they are paying to cotton seed farmers. [full text]


"The price of childhood - on the link between prices paid to farmers and the use of child labour in cottonseed production in Andhra Pradesh, India" Davuluri Venkateswarlu and Lucia da Corta (commissioned by India Committee of the Netherlands) Oct 2005

Barring the recent initiatives of few member companies of ASI [Association of Seed Industry] (Proagro [part of Bayer], Syngenta and Emergent Genetics [part of Monsanto]) the efforts of seed companies to reduce the employment of children in cottonseed production thus far have been largely confined to farmers’ awareness and motivation activities. And none of them have addressed the crucial issue of 'procurement price'. [also refers to Mahyco–Monsanto, Raasi Seeds, Nuziveedu Seeds, Ankur Seeds]
[full report ]


back ICN and the media Child Labour and Cottonseed Industry HOME India Committee of the Netherlands


India Committee of the Netherlands - March 1, 2007