Fair
Play Campaign
In
post partition India around the year
1950, after independent India and constitution
came into force, the sports goods industry
started. Today the industry is worth
600 crores and the goods are exported
to Britain, USA, Netherlands, Germany,
France, etc. In all, 318 sports items
are produced. All the activities are
centred around Meerut (Western U.P.)
and Jalandhar ( Punjab) . What is peculiar
to the sports good industry is the fact
that the tiny fingers of the children
are extensively used for the production
of sports items likethe cricket balls, footballs,‘ shuttle corks’ etc.
All the children are brought through
middlemen.
The
Fair Play Campaign in the sporting goods
industry initiated by SACCS/BBA is a
bench mark amongst the several campaigns
that it has successfully run over the
years.
The
main objectives of Fair Play Campaign
are: -
-
Identification
of critical instances of child labour;
these children, along with their
mothers will constitute the critical
target group (CTG).
-
Negotiating
with employers/ contractors whether
the task performed by the child
can be assigned to an adult of the
same family e.g. the mother; providing
a monetary incentive e.g salary
of the mother may initially be paid
by the project.
-
Setting
up of sewing cooperatives for income
augmentation of CTG mothers; flextime
provisions; membership conditional
to project coordinator’s certification
that children have ceased working.
-
Setting
up of cooperative store for sale
of sewing coop products.
- Facilitating
admission of older children into vocational
training schools.
- Allied
activities including teacher training,
community awareness, networking, advocacy,
consumer education, policy level,
lobbying, local government functionary-sensitisation
etc.
 |
In
the village of Jewari
it was found that there
was large scale unawareness.
It was not felt necessary
in this village to impart
education to all the children.
However, due to the school
being run by SACCS/ BBA,
the village has made considerable,
progress on the education
front. Success has been
achieved because parents
were convinced about the
usefulness of education. |
|
The
overall experience of running the two
schools under the Fairplay Campaign
for SACCS/BBA has been enriching. The
common myth that the children of the
poor do not have the privilege of education
was dispelled due to the existence of
these schools. Some of them did not
know the basics of reading and writing
and alphabets too. The change was miaraculous
to the parents who sent their children
to stitch balls and make cricket bats
a few months ago, were chanting slogans
STOP CHILD LABOUR. The children were
in the range of 13-14 years and some
of them were total orphans. . Besides
conventional education, they were also
taught the basics of daily hygiene and
cleanliness.
Major
Achievements
- Reduced
the number of child labour in sports
goods industry.
- Increased
school participation.
- Sensitisation
and mobilisation of the community
on the issue of child labour in sports
goods industry.
- Involvement
of other players on the issue of child
labour in the sports goods industry
like ILO/IPEC, FICCI, UNICEF and SCF
etc.
- Community
participation.
- Awareness
among the manufacturers/ exporters/middlemen
and masses
- Promotion
of IGP such as stitching and making
button holes.
- Reduced
the number of household industrial
activity.
- Improvement
in the adult wage system.
- Improvement
in the working condition of the women.
- Introduced
community work culture.
- There
has been enormous pressure on the
industry and due to that they have
started their own monitoring system
to make their products free of child
labour.
- Due
to the sensitisation of the foreign
buyers the women are made to work
in the shade in order to make the
buyers realise that the product is
made by the adults.
- The
industry owners have started their
own rehabilitation and education programme
for the children.
