Report: Gap Uses India Child Labor

[one...two...tree 2,762]

(AP / London) — A British newspaper reported Sunday that it found children as young as 10 making clothes in a sweatshop in New Delhi, India, that the Gap Inc. fashion chain planned to sell in the West.

The Observer quoted the children as saying they had been sold to the sweatshop by their families in Indian states such as Bihar and West Bengal and would not be allowed to leave until they had repaid that fee.

Some, working as long as 16 hours a day to hand-sew clothing, said they were not being paid at the unidentified Gap supplier because their employer said they were still trainees.

The Observer quoted one boy identified only as Jivaj as saying that child employees who cried or did not work hard enough were hit with a rubber pipe or had oily cloths stuffed into their mouths.

The paper said the sweatshop, or "derelict industrial unit," that it found during its investigation in New Delhi was "smeared in filth, the corridors flowing with excrement from a flooded toilet."

The Observer printed a photograph of one of the child workers, and British Broadcasting Corp. television broadcast what it said was footage of the youngsters taken at the sweatshop by an unidentified German TV crew.

According to a statement issued Sunday by Gap, the San Francisco-based company first learned of the child labor allegations from The Observer last week.

An Indian vendor assigned work on an item for the company's GapKids line to an unauthorized subcontractor "in direct violation of our agreement," the statement said.

"As soon as we were alerted to this situation, we immediately began an investigation," the statement said. "In addition, we took immediate steps to stop the work order and to prevent the product from being sold in our stores."

Gap did not immediately cut ties with the supplier it accused of improper subcontracting, but a spokesman said the company was taking the breach of its child labor policies "extremely seriously."

"We're willing to end relationships with vendors when they don't meet our standards," Gap spokesman Bill Chandler told The Associated Press.

The company requires its suppliers to guarantee that they will not use child labor to produce garments, Chandler said. Gap stopped working with 23 factories last year over violations uncovered by its inspectors, he said.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1677163,00.html

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Children as young as 10 working in India to repay debts?

I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell ya!

[peejay 327]

It's better to use exploited illegal alien sweatshop labor right here in the good ol' USA. At least the "amigos" occasionally buy tortillas and frijoles at the Walmart and pay sales tax on it. They even drop a few $$$ right here in the good ol' USA to wire their illegal loot back home. And when they go to the emergency room for free medical care (at taxpayer expense) at least the taxpayer funded hospital bill circulates a minute part of the money back into the US economy.

Once the job is outsourced to India we don't get squat. The CEO of the GAP should be tried for treason, tax evasion, and all their stores confiscated by the US government.

I never bought anything from the GAP anyway. Screw 'em.

[Geist 0]

Not to sound cold and heartless or anything, but considering the fact that for a lot of desperately poor children, the choice for them is not "Working in a sweatshop"vs. "going to school" but "working in a sweatshop" vs. "starving to death" or "becoming a child prostitute."

I know if I were a desperately poor child, I would much prefer working in a sweatshop.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Same ol', same ol' ...the wealthiest nations in the world create that wealth on the backs of Third World Labor. 'As long as it's not in our backyard, it's okay" doesn't fly.

Edited October 28, 2007 by Mister Fancypants

[peejay 327]

Same ol', same ol' ...the wealthiest nations in the world create that wealth on the backs of Third World Labor. 'As long as it's not in our backyard, it's okay" doesn't fly.

Not to sound so flippant, but this is a situation that the US consumer did not create. I would prefer to see this stuff made in America by our own people and live with the consequences of higher prices that go toward maintaining our own standard of living in our own economy. Of course to do so would take away from the so called "discreationary income" that Americans typically spend on frivilous ####### that they really don't need to survive. My Belarusian friends and relatives spend a lion's share of their income on basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing, energy, etc.) needed to live. Going to a movie or buying music is a luxury they save for. Kind of like the America my parents grew up in and to a certain extent me in my early years. Belarus doesn't rely on mass imports and mass immigration to stay afloat. They certainly aren't starving. I'm not extolling Belarus as a utopian society, but neither is the USA or lots of other places in the world. It's just an example of how other countries operate as opposed to others.

As Geist pointed out...the world is full of misery waiting to be exploited. What do you suppose would happen to these kids if even this little bit of sustinence wasn't available? Life is cheap in many places in the world. Sad but it is reality.

This US labor shortage that people on VJ continually harp on to justify mass illegal immigration is being filled by child labor in India. A big chunk of the world lives on less than $2 a day. Welcome to Globalism. Do we go back to the America I grew up in or embrace the future of Globalism? There will always be someone more pathetic than the next guy to exploit. Are we raising people up to our level or regressing to their's?

Remember that when you buy your cheap clothes and squander your savings on frivilous bullshit. By the grace of God go I. It sucks, but I don't beat myself to death over it. You can't change India, but you can change America. At 51 years old I figured out that I can't save the world, so at least I try to save mine and myself.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Same ol', same ol' ...the wealthiest nations in the world create that wealth on the backs of Third World Labor. 'As long as it's not in our backyard, it's okay" doesn't fly.

Not to sound so flippant, but this is a situation that the US consumer did not create. I would prefer to see this stuff made in America by our own people and live with the consequences of higher prices that go toward maintaining our own standard of living in our own economy. Of course to do so would take away from the so called "discreationary income" that Americans typically spend on frivilous ####### that they really don't need to survive. My Belarusian friends and relatives spend a lion's share of their income on basic necessities (food, shelter, clothing, energy, etc.) needed to live. Going to a movie or buying music is a luxury they save for. Kind of like the America my parents grew up in and to a certain extent me in my early years. Belarus doesn't rely on mass imports and mass immigration to stay afloat. They certainly aren't starving. I'm not extolling Belarus as a utopian society, but neither is the USA or lots of other places in the world. It's just an example of how other countries operate as opposed to others.

As Geist pointed out...the world is full of misery waiting to be exploited. What do you suppose would happen to these kids if even this little bit of sustinence wasn't available? Life is cheap in many places in the world. Sad but it is reality.

This US labor shortage that people on VJ continually harp on to justify mass illegal immigration is being filled by child labor in India. A big chunk of the world lives on less than $2 a day. Welcome to Globalism. Do we go back to the America I grew up in or embrace the future of Globalism? There will always be someone more pathetic than the next guy to exploit. Are we raising people up to our level or regressing to their's?

Remember that when you buy your cheap clothes and squander your savings on frivilous bullshit. By the grace of God go I. It sucks, but I don't beat myself to death over it. You can't change India, but you can change America. At 51 years old I figured out that I can't save the world, so at least I try to save mine and myself.

Well, we can certainly impose trade barriers, fines, economic sanctions to countries that continue to use human slave labor. It's not that hard to do really...just a willingness to stand up for human rights.

[Sprailenes 47]

This is old news, everyone knows it happens, people just choose to turn a blind eye.

Those gap commercials are just so fun though!

[mawilson 2,133]

Very good - work teaches skills and a sense of responsibility.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Very good - work teaches skills and a sense of responsibility.

What does unpaid work teach?

[mawilson 2,133]

Very good - work teaches skills and a sense of responsibility.

What does unpaid work teach?

That you're still a trainee and have much to learn.

[Mags 112]

I've always known that GAP uses child labour; I thought this was common knowledge. Same goes for Nike and all those types of companies....this isn't anything new, in fact, GAP and Nike are the two worst for it from what I understand. Have been for years.

Edited October 29, 2007 by Mags

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Very good - work teaches skills and a sense of responsibility.

What does unpaid work teach?

That you're still a trainee and have much to learn.

I've always known that GAP uses child labour; I thought this was common knowledge. Same goes for Nike and all those types of companies....this isn't anything new, in fact, GAP and Nike are the two worst for it from what I understand. Have been for years.

Yeah. And it doesn't bother me, to be honest. Most of these kids don't even have the opportunity to go to school, work is probably the next best way for them to be spending their time. It's better than being a child prostitute or being unvoluntarily amputated and put into service as a streetside beggar.