Twelve years after a US Congress resolution proposing a ban on imports into the US from industries suspected of using child labour and forced labour fell through, the spectre of a possible ban is back with the US government notifying ‘proposed procedural guidelines’ for the matter in October. The Government, still trying to douse the global ‘hype’ over a recent sting operation that alleged child labour was used by a vendor of global apparel giant GAP and worried about the prospect of missing its export targets for the year by as much as $15 billion, has swung into action.

At a meeting called by the Commerce Ministry last Thursday and attended by minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh, minister of state for labour and employment Oscar Fernandes and women and child development minister Renuka Choudhary, it was decided that the export promotion councils (EPCs) of five key sectors ‘where there is a perception that the use of child labour is significant’ will not only prepare a plan for abolishing the use of child labour, but also examine their entire supply chain to ensure that sub-contractors and suppliers are not using children.

The five-point action plan arrived at the meeting, where NGOs and representatives of EPCs for apparel, handicrafts, gems and jewellery, sports goods and carpets were present, requires these EPCs to conduct annual external social audit on the use of child labour and prepare plans for abolishing it in specific areas such as Varanasi, Badhoi, Jalandhar, Surat and Bhavnagar where the use of such labour is concentrated.

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