CHILD LABOUR FORCES 'GAP' TO WITHDRAW CLOTHES
By Prasun Sonwalkar, London, October 28, 2007(IANS)

British fashion major Gap Sunday announced that it had withdrawn from sale children's clothes that were reportedly produced using forced child labour in Shahpur Jat area of New Delhi. The announcement by the prominent fashion and clothes company was made following reports in the British press about miserable conditions in which goods were produced in low-cost Indian factories.

Dan Henkle, a spokesman for Gap, said Sunday: "We were made aware earlier this week that a reporter had found an incident of children working in a factory that was producing for one of our brands, and this is completely unacceptable to us. "We have a strict prohibition on child labour, and we are taking this very seriously. This is very upsetting and we intend to investigate thoroughly." He added that the company was calling an emergency meeting with its suppliers in India and other countries in Asia.

In a report from New Delhi, The Observer reported Sunday that child workers, some as young as 10, were found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of Gap. Speaking to The Observer correspondent, the children reportedly described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings. Gap will be withdrawing tens of thousands of embroidered blouses from the market, before they reach the stores.

The paper reported that the hand-stitched tops, which would have been sold for about £20, were destined for shelves in America and Europe in the next seven days in time to be sold to Christmas shoppers.

A 10-year-old boy was filmed making clothes for Gap shops in the US and Europe as part of an investigation by Britain's Observer newspaper. The boy told the paper he had been sold to a factory owner by his family. The boy said he had been working for four months without pay and would not be allowed to leave the job until the fee his family had received was repaid. Another boy of 12 said children were beaten if bosses thought they were not working hard enough, the paper reported.

The paper quoted Sheotaj Singh, co-founder of the Dayanand Shilpa Vidyalaya, a Delhi-based rehabilitation centre and school for rescued child workers, as saying that he believed that as long as cut-price embroidered goods were sold in stores across Britain, America, continental Europe and elsewhere in the West, there would be a problem with unscrupulous subcontractors using children.

Singh said: "It is obvious what the attraction is here for Western conglomerates. The key thing India has to offer the global economy is some of the world's cheapest labour, and this is the saddest thing of all the horrors that arise from Delhi's 15,000 inadequately regulated garment factories, some of which are among the worst sweatshops ever to taint the human conscience.

"Consumers in the West should not only be demanding answers from retailers as to how goods are produced but looking deep within themselves at how they spend their money."

Gap summons suppliers to stop child labour
By Arun Kumar, Washington, Oct 29 (IANS)

American clothing chain Gap is calling an urgent meeting with its suppliers in the region to prevent child labour after withdrawing clothes allegedly made using child labour in an Indian factory. "We strictly prohibit the use of child labour. This is a non-negotiable for us - and we are deeply concerned and upset by this allegation," Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America said in a statement issued in San Francisco.

Referring to a British media report on the use of child labour in India, the company said it was informed earlier this week about an allegation of child labour at an unauthorised facility in India that was working on a single product for GapKids. An investigation was immediately launched, the company said, claiming that a very small portion of a particular order placed with one of its vendors was apparently subcontracted to an unauthorised agency without the company's knowledge or approval.

Describing this as a direct violation of the company's agreement with the vendor under its Code of Vendor Conduct, Hansen said: "As we've demonstrated in the past, Gap has a history of addressing challenges like this head-on, and our approach to this situation will be no exception."

"In 2006, Gap Inc. ceased business with 23 factories due to code violations. We have 90 people located around the world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct.

"As soon as we were alerted to this situation, we stopped the work order and prevented the product from being sold in stores. While violations of our strict prohibition on child labour in factories that produce product for the company are extremely rare, we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers in the region to reinforce our policies.

"Gap Inc. has one of the industry's most comprehensive programmes in place to fight for workers' rights overseas. We will continue to work with the government, NGOs, trade unions, and other stakeholder organisations in an effort to end the use of child labour," the statement said.

Gap, which operates more than 3,100 stores in the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Ireland and Japan, did $15.9 billion in sales in 2006.