Farm work is no child’s play

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For 10-year-old Gaggera (name changed), life has almost always been amongst the cotton fields. Not playing, mind you. But picking up cotton balls with his nimble fingers, Gaggera has been working in a farm in village Giddaluru in Andhra Pradesh ever since he was six years old. And there is no shortage of jobs for him. After all, most farmers holding cotton farms in rural villages in Andhra Pradesh hire children for picking. Unfortunate, but true.

In an attempt to tackle the issue, Monsanto, a global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve farm productivity, introduced an incentive for cotton farmers to eliminate child labour. “We wanted to reaffirm our commitment to our Human Rights Anti–Child Labour Program,” said Sekhar Natarajan, Lead – India Region, Monsanto. The Human Rights Program is in partnership with the United Nations International Labour Organisation, NGOs — Voluntary Organisation of Rural Development Society (VORDS), Global Research & Consultancy, and industry.

Farmer awareness campaigns, external third-party audits and an incentive/disincentive programme were introduced to educate and encourage farmers to produce hybrid cotton seed with adult labour only. Farmers employing adult labour receive an additional incentive of Rs 5,000 per acre which helps them afford adult labour and discourages the thought of employing child labour, said Mohan Rao, Human Rights Lead, Monsanto India.

In case farmers are found to violate the Human Rights Clause in their contracts, the child is immediately removed from the field, the farmer becomes ineligible for incentives, and Monsanto discontinues production with the farmer the following season. These efforts have helped farmers reduce child labour on the hybrid cotton seed production fields from 20% in 2004 to less than 1% in 2007, added Rao.