Gap stitches in time

: GAP has begun an effort to rebuild its reputation after a damaging child-labour scandal in India, announcing a package of measures last week intended to tighten its commitment to eradicating the exploitation of children in the manufacture of its goods.

Embarrassed by reports that some GapKids clothes had been hand-embroidered by child workers in Delhi, Gap said it would refine its procedures to ensure that items made in textile workshops in India are not being produced by children.

It also announced a grant of $200,000 to improve working conditions here and said it would be holding an international conference next year to come up with solutions for issues related to child labour.

The statement from the company came after an internal investigation by a British newspaper, The Observer, which printed pictures in October of children making clothes for Gap in a sweatshop. The newspaper reported that children, some as young as 10, were working up to 16 hours a day to embroider clothes, some of them bearing Gap labels and bar codes.

The company’s president, Marka Hansen, said in an open letter to customers that the children who were found to be embroidering decorations on blouses for toddlers for Gap would be paid until they were of working age and then offered employment. “They’ll also get the back wages and education they deserve,” she wrote in the letter, which was posted on the company’s website. “Under no circumstance is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments for us. It’s non-negotiable.”

Bhuwan Ribhu of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation dedicated to outlawing child labour, welcomed the announcement. “They say they believe child labour should be eliminated,” he said. “This is a good start.”

His organisation is caring for 14 children, all thought to be younger than 14, who were removed by police in late October from the sweatshop where the Gap clothes were made. They are staying at a children’s home run by the organisation until their cases are investigated and a court issues a release certificate allowing them to return to their villages in West Bengal.

Most of the child labourers, who work in homes, restaurants and textile workshops in India’s big cities, come from impoverished rural areas, either sold into bonded labour by traffickers or willingly sent by their parents in the hope that they will send back extra income.

The statement from Gap said that the vendor that got the Gap...