VZCZCXRO6980
OO RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0162/01 1511150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O P 301150Z MAY 08
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2009
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0106
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0066
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK PRIORITY 0191
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2456

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KOLKATA 000162 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PLS PASS TO DOL/ILAB-CCASTRO, RRIGBY 
DEPT FOR DRL-MMITTELHAUSER, SCA/INS, AND G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PGOV KWMN SOCI PHUM SMIG ECON IN
SUBJECT: BRICKS, BAGS, AND CLOTHES -- THE TIP OF THE CHILD LABOR 
PROBLEM IN WEST BENGAL 
 
REF: 06 CALCUTTA 462 
 
KOLKATA 00000162  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶1.  (U) SUMMARY: In flagrant violation of the Child Labor 
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, garment, brick and leather 
goods manufacturing units continue to employ child laborers in 
West Bengal, a state where the government has shown little or no 
political will to deal with this problem.  Between May 22 and 29 
PolEconOff visited two garment factories, two brick kilns and 
three leather goods manufacturing units in the greater Kolkata 
metropolitan area, all of which utilize child labor.  At each 
location, PolEconOff saw children as young as seven or eight 
years old engaged in the work of tailoring garments, mixing the 
clay that goes into making bricks or cutting and stitching 
pieces of leather to make wallets, hand bags, portfolio bags and 
luggage.  Some pictures are available at 
http://picasaweb.google.com/KolkataPolEcon/Ch ildLaborKolkata. 
Despite anti-child labor laws being in place for over two 
decades and updated in 2006, children continue to be exploited 
and robbed of their basic rights to good health and education. 
END SUMMARY 
 
---------------- 
Garment Workers 
---------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Between May 22 and 29 PolEconOff made a series of visits 
to manufacturing units in the greater Kolkata metropolitan area, 
all of which utilize child labor.  On May 22, PolEconOff visited 
two garment factories in the Maheshtala Municipality Area, North 
24 Parganas district of West Bengal.  PolEconOff was accompanied 
by staff of the NGO Right Track which runs non-formal schools 
and vocational training centers in the area for child laborers 
in hopes of weaning away these children from work and putting 
them into the mainstream education system.  At the first unit, 
we observed around ten children engaged in tailoring men's 
shirts, cutting fabric, and operating sewing machines.  The ages 
of these children ranged between 7 and 16 years old.  The 
youngest of the children (between 7 - 10 years old) sat on the 
floor ironing the fabric used to make the shirts. 
 
¶3.  (U) The factory shed had a tin roof.  Although there were a 
few ventilation fans, the air inside the shed was stifling 
(summer temperatures in Kolkata regularly reach 100 degrees) and 
the workspace was cramped, with bales of cloth and sewing 
machines occupying most of the space.  We were able to speak to 
some of the children.  Most were from North and South 24 
Parganas districts which border Kolkata, there were a few 
children from the neighboring state of Bihar, and one from as 
far as Nasik in Maharashtra.  One child (approximately 12 years 
of age) said that he was brought to the unit about a year back 
by his "uncle," who is a tailor in the same unit.  We were not 
able to ascertain whether they were actually related or whether 
the person he referred to as "uncle" was just a neighbor or an 
acquaintance from his native town of Canning in South 24 
Parganas district.  The child is currently working as an 
apprentice to this "uncle" and lives with the latter's family in 
the same locality.  The child was sewing shirt collars and 
sleeves.  He said that they were given a day off in a week 
(usually Wednesdays) and that he went home to visit his family 
in Canning twice a month for two days at a time.  On being asked 
whether he attended school, he said that he was not interested 
in studying and preferred to work in the factory. 
 
¶4.  (U) Another child we spoke with named Sabeer was from Bihar. 
 He was brought to the factory by his father five years ago. 
When asked about his age, he said that he did not know how old 
he was (he looked about 12-13 years old).  On being asked how 
much was being paid for his work, he initially said Rs. 783 (USD 
19) per week.  The NGO workers accompanying us said that the 
answer was fabricated and that in reality he was being paid far 
less than that.  On being questioned further Sabeer then said 
that he earned Rs. 1000 (USD 29.40) per month.  After more 
discussion with him, he finally said that he received Rs. 80 
(USD 2) per week.  This amount, the NGO workers confirmed, was 
the norm in the industry.  Sabeer said that he lives with his 
father in one of the sheds just behind the factory unit. His 
mother and sisters live in a village in Bihar.  Sabeer, like the 
other children we spoke to, said that he was not interested in 
going to school and preferred working in the factory.  When 
asked if he had ever attended school, he said before coming to 
Kolkata, he went to primary school in Bihar and had studied up 
to the second standard (6th grade). 
 
KOLKATA 00000162  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶5.  (U) One of the NGO workers familiar with the working of the 
unit said that the children worked for 10 -12 hours a day with a 
half hour lunch break in the afternoon.  However, each year in 
the run up to the festive season (around October -November) the 
children are made to work up to 16- 18 hours a day with no 
holidays.  We visited another garment factory called "Novelty 
Garments" situated in the same locality.  There were about seven 
children seen at work, aged between 7 - 16 years, although one 
of the adult workers said that the average age of all the 
workers in the unit was 16 years.  Nearly all the workers were 
from West Bengal's Midnapore district, many from Nandigram 
village.  We did not come across any workers from the 
neighboring states.  Our conversations with the children at 
Novelty Garments was limited, as one of the adult workers was 
suspicious about the purpose of our visit and was reluctant to 
talk or let his co-workers talk to us.  However, PolEconOff 
managed to speak briefly with one child, who used large, rusty 
scissors to cut strips of fabric for collars.  He appeared to be 
about 11 years old and said he was brought to work by his 
"uncle."  He said his family lived in a village in South 24 
Parganas.  He lived with his "uncle" and some other boys.  He 
said that he was allowed to visit his family when he wanted. 
When asked how, he said there was a bus that goes to his 
village. 
 
---------------------- 
The Economy of a Brick Kiln 
---------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) On May 23, PolEconOff visited the United brick kiln in 
West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district, about 15 miles 
north-east of Kolkata.  United is part of a cluster of brick 
kilns located close to Rajarhat, a burgeoning township on the 
fringes of Kolkata on the banks of the Bidyadhari River. United 
brick kiln is an unregistered kiln, meaning that it pays no 
minimum wage, does not comply with labor policies, and does not 
provide workers with statutory benefits.  Unregistered brick 
kilns are sometimes identifiable because the chimneys do not 
carry an embossed company logo.  Also, at unregistered kilns, 
the stamp on individual bricks changes every two months or so, 
making it more difficult to identify any one "company" that runs 
the kiln.  The incentive to run an unregistered kiln is that 
formal inspections are less likely to take place and of course 
the tax avoidance implications.  (Note:  We also heard reports 
of GOWB ownership of brick kilns through the use of contractors 
as a front, but were unable to verify these claims.  End Note.) 
 
¶7.  (U) Registered and unregistered kilns have come up near 
Kolkata to meet the increasing demand for brick and construction 
material from the city's booming real estate sector. The number 
of kilns in the cluster we visited has increased from 7 to 63 in 
the past 15 years.  There were about 80 migrant workers at the 
United kiln, 85 percent of whom were from Jharkhand and Bihar 
states. Kiln worker Sia Devi told us she was from Bihar's 
Sekhpura district and that her five-member family has been 
coming to work in the kiln for years.  We also met workers who 
said they came from Gaya and Nawada districts in Bihar.  The 
rest of the workers came from other districts of West Bengal. 
 
¶8. (U)  With wages of just Rs. 200-300 (USD 5-7) per week per 
family, locals do not work in the kilns.  Migrant kiln laborers 
from Jharkhand and Bihar are tribal men, women and children who 
work between the months of November and July.  These are lean 
months for agricultural laborers back in their native states. 
The brick kilns do not operate during the monsoon, which starts 
from mid-June to November.  Laborers are sourced through an 
intricate web of brokers and agents.  Kiln owners advance 
between Rs. 100,000 (USD 2,439) and Rs. 200,000 (USD 4,878) to 
local brokers at the beginning of the season.  Out of this pool 
of funds, brokers pay between Rupees 7,000 (USD 171) and Rupees 
8,000 (USD 195) per worker as an advance to the brokers in other 
states like Jharkhand and Bihar.  Brokers keep part of the money 
and pay the rest as an advance to the migrant workers who often 
utilize it to help satisfy debts that they have incurred during 
the sowing season.  Kiln managers also pay a travel assistance 
and Rupees 20 (USD 0.48) per season to workers as a medical 
allowance. This amount is adjusted against a worker's overall 
wages. The children and young workers complement the work of 
their parents, and are not paid separate wages. 
 
 
KOLKATA 00000162  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
¶9. (U) A typical work day at the kiln has two shifts.  The 
morning shift starts at 5 am and goes on till 11:30 am.  The 
afternoon shift begins at 2:30 pm hours and ends at 6:00 pm. 
During the tour of the United kiln, we saw women and young boys 
(approximately age 11) and girls working in the scorching sun, 
putting mud mixture in brick moulds and arranging them in 
stacks.  Pictures are available at 
http://picasaweb.google.com/KolkataPolEcon/Ch ildLaborKolkata. 
Children pulled wheelbarrows filled with mud and although we did 
not observe it, place and remove bricks in the kilns.  One NGO 
worker told us that a boy had fallen into the kiln (there are 
multiple coal-loading holes in the ground surrounding the 
smokestack) and had died one month earlier. 
 
¶10. (U) The NGO Save the Children runs a crhche at the kiln 
where children up to the age of six are taught and provided a 
meal.  Kiln operators were upset with the school when it taught 
the children how to count.  As wages are paid on the basis of 
the number of bricks made, kiln operators could not dupe the 
children who knew how to count.  We asked the workers if they 
were able to visit the nearby towns.  They all said no.  Workers 
who had returned to the brick kilns over a period of 5-10 years 
had not learned any Bengali language skills, indicating that the 
workers are isolated from outside influences.  NGO workers said 
that consumption of illicit liquor, company arranged video 
parlors (for men only) and sex are the only avenues of 
recreation.  There is a high prevalence of sexually transmitted 
disease and HIV infection among migrant kiln workers.  In 2003, 
Save the Children volunteers tested 42 United workers for HIV. 
Seven of them were found to be HIV positive. 
 
------------------ 
Leather Goods for Export 
------------------ 
 
¶11. (U) On May 29, PolEconOff visited three leather goods 
manufacturing units in the dark and dingy lanes of the Topsia 
area of Kolkata city.  All the units visited were poorly 
ventilated and damp, and children comprising approximately 40 to 
50 percent of the work force toiled in the sweltering heat 
without the luxury of any ceiling fans.  In the first unit we 
visited, there were approximately 10 children, all engaged in 
making leather wallets - cutting leather pieces, pasting lining 
material and stitching the pieces together.  All the children 
were from Bihar.  All were brought to the city to work in these 
units by relatives who worked either in the same unit or in 
leather factories in the locality. 
 
¶12. (U) One of the children called Anwar, about 12 years of age, 
said that he had been working at the unit for the past three 
years.  On asking what were the working hours and how often did 
they get time off, Anwar said that working hours depended on the 
work load, if there was a large order from a buyer and a tight 
deadline to keep to, they worked more 18-20 hours a day without 
any holidays.  During lean periods, they received one day off 
per week.  Regarding wages, Mohammad Mumtaz, the most senior 
worker in the unit said that they were paid according to the 
number of wallets that they manufactured per month, which in 
turn depended on the orders they had to fill.  He said that if 
they produced 200 wallets a week, the entire team of workers 
would get about Rs. 25 (USD 0.60) per wallet, i.e., Rs. 5,000 
(USD 122) in total.  They divided this amount among themselves 
(Mumtaz did not elaborate on how the distribution was done). 
Mumtaz also said that their products were made solely for export 
and that they did not supply any wallets the local market.  He 
mentioned Germany and London, as export destinations.  He said 
that the orders came through an export agency called "Shabina 
Exports" located in a room next to the unit in the same 
building, and the same company arranged for the packaging and 
export of the goods to foreign buyers.  At the time of our visit 
the export agency was closed so we were not able to get more 
details about the specific buyers or the complete list of export 
destinations.  The owner of the unit Mr. Shahzaad Baksh later 
said that he was not aware of all the countries his products 
were exported to as they were routed through exporters - all he 
knew was that they went to "America, Dubai and Germany."  He 
mentioned two other export agencies to which he supplied goods 
called Sunny Exports and ACL Leather. 
 
¶13. (U) We also visited another export oriented leather goods 
manufacturing unit.  The manager looking after daily operations 
 
KOLKATA 00000162  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
of the unit said that it was part of a "big company" (refusing 
to give its name) that employed 400 to 450 workers in total, 
manufacturing leather ladies' hand bags, portfolio bags, laptop 
bags, rolling bags, and suitcases, all destined for "foreign 
countries."  We saw about 15 children at this unit, working on 
cutting leather pieces and stitching them into portfolio bags 
with sewing machines.  The manager was very guarded and was not 
willing to answer any questions.  At the third factory we 
visited, there were very few workers (about six) present, the 
supervisor Mr. Farooque said that the rest were on leave.  We 
saw just one child here (about 14 years of age).  Farooque said 
that all their products (leather hand bags, laptop bags, suit 
cases, rolling bags, and planners) were supplied to local buyers 
and named some of the well known leather goods retail stores in 
the city, such as Leder Land and Big Bazaar.  We asked about the 
price of a laptop bag and Farooque said that he supplied it to 
the retailer for Rs. 500 (USD 12) a piece, which in turn was 
sold in the retail showroom for no less than Rs. 1,500 (USD 
36.50).  He received only Rs. 50 (USD 1.20) per bag as a "making 
charge" from his employer. 
 
-------- 
Comment 
-------- 
¶14.   (U) The common refrain among the NGOs like Right Track, 
Save the Children and CINI Asha is that even though laws banning 
child labor have been in place for years, there is hardly any 
impetus from the state government to enforce the laws.  Even the 
money the state government receives annually from the federal 
government to implement the National Child Labor Policy (NCLP) 
Scheme (to run special schools for rescued child laborers, 
provide supplementary nutrition at Rs. 5 per day to each child, 
health care facilities and a stipend of Rs. 100 per month) 
remains chronically under spent due to a lack of focus on the 
scheme and inadequate, inefficient state administrative 
machinery. 
 
¶15.  (U) On the supply side, extreme poverty due to lack of 
adequate adult employment opportunities drives parents to send 
children to work, and on the demand side the sweat shop and 
brick kiln owners are eager to employ cheap labor in the absence 
of enforcement of the child labor laws.  Though we only examined 
brick kilns, garment and leather factories, we are convinced 
that child labor is ubiquitous in other industries as well.  An 
uncaring government and a insensitive civil society ensures that 
despite anti-child labor laws being in place for over two 
decades, children continue to be exploited and robbed of their 
basic rights to health and education, and denied opportunities 
to realize their full potential. 
JARDINE