One of the items that has been getting votes on the News Tab today is the IBN Live story (thanks, Raprasad) on The Gap’s decision to pull a contract with an Indian contractor that had been using bonded child laborers in horrific sweatshop conditions in Delhi. (By a strange irony, the clothes the children were working on happened to be destined for GapKids. Oy.) The decision by The Gap was prompted by an excellent article in the UK Observer, which was in turn the product of an undercover investigation. The part that bugged me in the IBN article came at the end of the following passage:
The Observer quoted the children as saying that they had been sold to the sweatshop in Delhi by their families. The children, some of who worked for as long as 16 hours a day sewing clothes by hand, said they hailed from Bihar and West Bengal. They added that they were not being paid because their employer said they were still trainees; nor would they be allowed to leave till they could repay the amount for which they were bought from their families.
When contacted, Gap gave the official statement that the sweatshop was being run by a sub-contractor. This is a violation of Gap’s policies, said the fashion giant.
Gap spokesman Bill Chandler was vocal in his thanks to the media. “We appreciate that the media identified this sub-contractor and we acted swiftly in this situation,” he told the Associated Press. “Under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments,” he added.
Correctness-conscious America is very strict about the use of child labour. (link)
That last sentence, “Correctness-conscious America is very strict…” got under my skin. Granted, there are different ways of looking at this particular issue; I know some people justify limited child labor under the argument that families living in extreme poverty need all the income they can get. In this case, however, the kids were effectively slave laborers sold off by their families — an arrangement that in my view can’t possibly be defensible.
The sentence above could also be defended along the lines that the reporter was merely explaining to a readership that may not be that strongly opposed to child labor why this is such a big deal. If that’s the case — that is, if the majority of English-speaking readers of Indian business newspapers and viewers of cable news are nonplussed by bonded child labor in their own backyards — I’m not angry, just sad. It’s not about “correctness-consciousness,” it’s about basic human rights, is it not?
See also: SAJA Forum.
Yeah, it’s odd to me how the notion of America as particularly strapped by political correctness has made its way around the world. I’ve encountered this notion in England, occasionally, and in Russia, all the frickin’ time. This was my first run-in with it circulating in Indian press. Has the American right-wing done a particularly good job of spreading the notion of American politics dominated by crazed “correctness,” or is there something particularly insidious about America’s embrace of the linguistic turn as a political mode? Thoughts, folks?
Mate, easy to talk about basic human rights when one’s belly is full. Child labour will go away only when there is economic development.
the point about Americans being ‘correctness-conscious’ is more true than false and I dont mean it as a criticism.
Why isn’t GAP conducting any supplier audits? This is the type of stuff that is flushed out in such audits, among aother quality/contractual issues.
Gujudude,
I have friends who make garments for GAP and other major brands in Bombay and Tirpur and they routinely have these audits. It may be a subcontractor who was caught in Delhi as I can’t find the name of the company that was employing these children anywhere. I believe a law was passed early this year or last year that banned Children under 13 to be employed in factories.
In other good news, the mostly South Asian workers in Dubai have gone on strike to protest against the subhuman conditions of employment which exist in most construction sites in UAE. I will wait on our right wingers at SM to talk about the ‘right to work’.
this portion of the quoted answer bothered me. Even if it was impossible to ensure that all your subcontractors were following the law, how could Gap assume that it was doing due diligence by not reconsidering it’s relationship with the supplier in question? If one subcontractor was using illegal labor how does it follow that other such subs have not adopted the same practice? The garment sub-contracting world can’t be that decentralized that a no-overhead business model like the child-labor abomination in question would not be known beyond this one shop.
1) I was saddened by the whole story – just because. I’m a mom and the idea that a 7 year old the size and weight of my 3 year old is being worked to death is awful. Period end.
2) I think “correctness-conscious” is exactly how a lot of non-Americans are perceived. Every culture has its language dos and donts. But I think it’s a whole other level of being polite and terribly conscious here because it wasn’t so long ago that it was quite acceptable to use slurs as a way of seeing entire groups of people, regardless of where you were. It still happens all the time, we’re just all more careful about it. And what’s acceptable and what isn’t changes all the time. I’ll never forget trying to explain to my mother – newly arrived from India – why she shouldn’t use the words “you people” around anyone black. For her, using the expression literally means “you, the people in the store, the ones I’m speaking to directly as I would to anyone in the world.” Not so much for anyone black here, as Ross Perot found out in his presidential campaign, and fast! Her response was something along the likes of “I’m afraid to say anything now! And I was trying to be friendly and respectful precisely because I didn’t want to come across as treating anyone poorly.”
3) The thing that semi-amuses me about this entire ghapla are the people who are going to boycott Gap, but will probably continue to shop at Old Navy and Banana Republic. Hello, they’re all owned by the same company. So what does that say about your taking a “stand!”?
4) Am I the only one somewhat impressed with how Gap is handling this? At least from the first reports? Their response wasn’t defensive, more like “we’ll take our lumps, we’re very sorry, and not just because we got caught, we would never knowingly do this.”
Actually I’m angry. A 10 yr old should be in school and not in a sweatshop or used as a slave labor in hotels / industries. There was a law passed in India a few years back that bans child labor and punishes anyone under the age of 14 to be employed anywhere, I think. If they just make an example of a few police officers / IAS officials who use child labor in their homes it would help a lot.
This was really quite interesting but woefully short, so I hunted up the following instead. It seems like the right arm doesn’t quite know what the left is doing.. why would the government offer free tickets home to illegal workers while industry bemoans the labour shortage? http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3B7DA6A5-F782-4C0A-A19B-FD4EEB0C23AE.htm
Am not defending child labor, but it’s easy for us to say. The issue is not exactly black and white.
Don’t know about that but for starters I have seen a “chotu” (typically a 10 yr old kid) in almost every teashop that I have been to in Allahabad, UP. This was about 8 years ago, so not sure if it is still the same.
Can you explain??.. The issue is actually quite “black and white”.
If the government provides free food and free education there is no need for the poor parents to send the kids to slave labor. If a few examples are made of punishing the high government officials for child labor, people would fall in line.
I applaud the sentiments of the western consumers to apply pressure on companies that use child labor.
I am in not in any way contradicting the ethos of this person’s comment, but is there actually that much money in India’s kitty?
Sure, there is.. When the State Govt. of Tamilnadu intoduced (or rather re-introduced) mid-day meals scheme for students in schools in the early 80s.. where they are provided free, quality food, when the state was running a high deficit, everyone ridiculed the Chief Minister M.G.Ramachandran as a senile film-star turned politician. But he was quite adamant on providing food to the students. That scheme was a grand success in retaining students, increasing the literacy rates and in general social development, so much so that the Supreme court mandated its replication in all states across India.
Legally the Govt. is supposed to provide mid-day meals and free education to all children. The implementation is a whole different story. Why do you think you can still hear about these cases and see child beggars? My take is that even where there is food, the food incentive is not good enough as opposed to the earning potential and thus you see these problems. What a child can earn through work is more than what he will spend for food.
I believe the laws for banning child labor are not working and will not work in India. It either happens illegally or children end up begging – but not going to school. If instead, you allow children to work but only a certain number of hours, make laws that fine the employer heavily for making kids work longer, then you have a better chance. A person currently employing a kid has to do it illegally anyways and so he might as well exploit the situation. If he can employ the child legally, the exploitation will reduce, and to make up for the same the employer can hire more kinds. Exceptions will always be there till the economy is able to provide for everyone.
Not a perfect solution but one that may work, But then it may not…
Lead is to China as child labor is to India.
My take on this as a DBD who’s been here a few years is: a little bit of both. The US is acutely aware of several instances of political incorrectness in its history, both race-related and otherwise, much more so than many other nations. That heightened awareness translates to greater sensitivity, which may be perceived negatively as political correctness by other groups. For instance, as late as 1982, Margaret Thatcher was making speeches about the (perceived) greatness of the British Empire (also referenced on SepiaMutiny here), simply because nobody had called her out on the appropriateness of the term earlier. I cannot imagine a mainstream US politician, however far-right-wing, recalling the glory of owning slaves without severe damage to his career.
In India, someone like Mani Shankar Aiyar has referred to Native Americans as Red Indians (you will need to search that page for that term). Ironically enough, Aiyar was waxing rhetorical about the perceived evil of the US, saying “This is a civilization which has stolen the land of the Red Indian all the way from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast”. To me, this sort of drive-by name-calling indicates that he is not informed about what terms are acceptable and what are not, so he doesn’t even know that there’s something to be sensitive about.
To a lesser extent, American English has a slightly more convoluted (and euphemistic) vocabulary than British English. For instance, I have seen plastic covers for medical equipment labeled as “dust covers” when made by British manufacturers and “sterility maintenance covers” in the US. What’s usually called a “public toilet” in the UK is usually called a “public washroom” or a “public restroom” in the US, unless referring to the actual plumbing fixture or being deliberately dysphemistic. This difference in vocabulary could possibly contribute to the impression of the US as being political correct, but it raises the larger question of whether the correctness is what drives the language to be different in the first place.
I wonder why no one cares about that when it comes to these guys.
Poverty doesn’t end when you have no labor rights, and poverty ESPECIALLY doesn’t end when children are made to work instead of getting an education. The United States had plenty of child labor back in the day – then it was ended because it was unfair to children and ENSURED that they would never get ahead in life. This is the same, tired attitude that many middle-class Indians have to poverty – aw, we’re handing out dimes and giving them jobs as our servants and sweepers – chee, we’re so good to the poor! Meanwhile, they can continue doing back-breaking labor for us and NEVER, EVER acquire the skills that might take them out of their poverty. And why give them anything resembling rights and security? If they’re injured, let’s just toss them on the street to beg, because, Christ, there’s plenty more where that came from!
Your attitude is disgusting. Children should not be working, period, end of story. This is an ancient Hindu value, even: until 25 you are a student, and your duty is to learn. What the hell are you going to learn chained to a sewing-machine?
So, please, please, please, go away with your nonsense about “child labor will end when there is economic development”. Poverty in India will NOT go away until we recognize that poor children have the right to a future. A FUTURE, not pennies.
Ardy, making laws legalizing children working is one thing, but how likely is it that such laws will be enforced? What is to prevent employers from breaking the relaxed laws anyway, given that some of them are already breaking the current stricter laws? Plus there is the whole morally dubious thing about such laws giving legitimacy to child labor. I tend to agree with Ponniyin Selvan on this issue – make an example of a few people employing children, and the numbers will likely reduce.
Also, this may be relevant to the appropriateness of the name “Washington Redskins”: Native_American_Mascot_Controversy.
I rest the blame in the following order (a) sub-contractor for violating the laws (b) GAP for not proper oversight. Blaming the kids, their parents etc. is getting into murky territory of poverty. No use debating over it unless GAP or Govt. of India is willing to take the responsibility of educating those kids right till the age he is eligible and qualified to get an employment. Btw in the same genre what about the inhumane leather and fur goods that many western and urban indians wear/use ?
Oops – I think you misunderstood my point. Economic development results in adequate wealth in the hands of the parents so that children dont work. I am not disputing that child labour is wrong – I believe that the route to salvation is through economic development i.e. decent jobs for adults. India has child labour protection laws – no shortage of that – but who is going to enforce it ?
No mate – I am not going anywhere.
Totally agree with melbourne desi and ardy. When kids who get part time work are paid well for their work, it liberates them, to some extent, from adult bullying. After all, American kids with newspaper routes and lemonade stands are thought of in heroic terms. Nobody says it was cruel to allow a kid dying of cancer to raise money for cancer research by selling lemonade. I think it sucks that the GAP are chucking the clothes those kids made– shows little respect for the kids and their work– they should give those clothes to the kids who made them.
Ponniyin Selvan, I hope you remember that the plan to provide school lunches was proposed by Amartya Sen, with better attendance and other benefits very much in mind, and that it was first implemented by a committee he chaired (if those are the right words).
Another thing that bothers me is that if the 123 Agreement was going forward as earlier planned, nobody would have bothered to uncover this– it’s only a part of the sour grapes backlash. Amazing how the same people who were busy making it seem like India was asking too much, and promising to be sherpas to ease the way, are all of a sudden hot and bothered about what a crummy place India is anyway.
Ardy is quite right– who’s looking at the Redskins? Mani Shankar Aiyar’s main point was certainly more meaningful than what he chose to call the earlier inhabitants of this country. Who is it that hasn’t watched a western without realizing that an entire genre was devoted to establishing that the people defending their land were the bad guys?
Thanks Amrita for clarifying some of my points.
Exactly why I say what I do. We already have all kinds of laws in India. However, I have little faith that we can implement those laws in India. Thus whether you have laws banning child labor or laws for limited work for them, be assured no one is going to implement them well as a general rule. Also, due to the economics of the issue, as long as a child makes more money than what he spends for food, no mid-day meal scheme will be that effective. Similarly, creating an example of some contractors can only go so far and so long, what after 2 months or once bribes are paid.
Instead, if you take away (rather reduce) the economic incentive of exploitation from the contractor, and give him a legal way to do the same, rather than paying bribes and risking illegalities, he will go for the legal course. Here you are not implementing laws better but instead taking away the incentive of the contractor to break the law. Children will work – either beg if you enforce strict laws banning child labor or else really work – and thus you should instead make the most of an imperfect situation.
The truly unfortunate outcome of this scenario-
you know where parents of these children are going to go next? To the kitchens of hotels to have the children wash up and work as labourers.. To the cleaning outfits to work with shoe polish.. all jobs far more arduous and hazard exposing than sewing GAP clothes.
I agree with Amardeep, though; bonded labour is a sick, sick crime every time I see a story like this, I think of Iqbal Masih: did he die in vain?
This is the day of ineptness; go hither instead of yon: http://www.pangaea.org/street_children/asia/lahore.htm
AND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Masih
lalala 😉
Amardeep, I think you are reading a little too much into that IBN line, it might have been an unfortunate slip.
That’s hogwash. Plenty of people have been investigating and reporting on child labor practices in India for years. Don’t do them a disservice.
No. It is not an unfortunate slip. It reflects the attitude of many people in India. I think people have a wrong idea that allowing kids in India to work legally is equivalent to kids in US taking summer jobs in McDonalds / Dunkin Donuts. It is EXPLOITATION folks.
If a person cannot be convinced by a binding law not to employ children under the threat of going to jail he can never be convinced to provide good working conditions and pay. We’re talking about 6-14 year olds and their only job is to be in school. As I said before, there should be a strict enforcement of law along with mass campaign to talk about the evils of child labor and generate awareness. I will walk away from a tea shop or a hotel that employs kids and would expect the same from other folks who share the view. I appreciate the western consumers who apply pressure on companies to ban child labor.
.
Right. And then they stopped reporting on child labor in the popular press for a while. Never underestimate the need to drive opinion through media. This Sunday we’re back on with the unmet needs of the hijras on CNN once again, and we certainly hadn’t heard from them in a while. From your point of view, fsowallah, the decline of the 123 Agreement should be reckoned a good thing.
It still is bloody that they destroyed or are destroying the clothes instead of giving them to the children who worked so hard to make them.
No. It is not an unfortunate slip. It reflects the attitude of many people in India. I think people have a wrong idea that allowing kids in India to work legally is equivalent to kids in US taking summer jobs in McDonalds / Dunkin Donuts.
OK, I will bite. Why is it different?
Are you kidding? A summer job in the US is exactly that – something to do when school is not in session. You work according to federally mandated and enforced maximum hours and minimum wages, and you go back home when work is done, wherever home may be. In India (and other parts of South Asia) you could be literally chained to the loom that you are operating, working for 16 hours a day and be denied sunlight and sufficient food, leave alone school. See comments #27 & 28 on Iqbal Masih for instance.
No, Amrita, I’m just not tying in the 123 agreement to media reporting on India’s social problems. If you have been reading the local papers daily here in India (I have) and not CNN, you’d see that the reporting is not linked. Just because the local media doesn’t report every day on child labor doesn’t mean that 123 somehow stifled it.
Additionally children (in the U.S.) are banned from a variety of work activities. Oftentimes if you find kids employed in industries that don’t seem quite right (in the U.S.) they’re being paid under the table. Generally speaking you’re not going to find (sanctioned incidents) kids being sent down mine shafts or polishing artillery cartridges with their tiny fingers the way you did 100+ years ago in the U.S. You certainly are not going to find them chained inside a house to a loom going blind as they tie each piece of a Persian rug together.
Jasmine, I don’t know if I would say that being exposed to industrial cleansers is more/less dangerous than working in a sweat shop. Not that we have to put them into tiers of egregiousness, but there’s a lot of danger and the possibility of losing limbs / eyesight / respiratory health that comes with textile work.
Well, fsowallah, I certainly am tying them in. Mark my words, there will soon be a plethora of articles in the popular press about poverty and illegal and cruel practices in India, just as before, and very much as if activating the 123 Agreement could have alleviated it all, just like that, 123. BTW, fsowallah and pingpong both, do check this study which is far more realistic, IMO, than all the chest thumping about ending child labor with a bang, or fixing it all by not buying from GAP stores.
Would you be okay with Indian kids working summers at McDonald’s?
Are you kidding? A summer job in the US is exactly that – something to do when school is not in session. You work according to federally mandated and enforced maximum hours and minimum wages, and you go back home when work is done, wherever home may be. In India (and other parts of South Asia) you could be literally chained to the loom that you are operating, working for 16 hours a day and be denied sunlight and sufficient food, leave alone school. See comments #27 & 28 on Iqbal Masih for instance.
You have no experience of India. Yeah, it’s a poor country and the poor do desperate stuff and that is starting to get reported and in 5 or so years we’ll have some improvements in the enforcement of the laws already on the books;
BUT,
You, my friend, has to answer the following points:
Is the roadside chotu’s job/ pay characteristic different from the McJanet’s Job/ pay characteristics when compared against what an adult would make in the respective societies. (IOW, once you account for general prosperity levels) ?
If you argue on the basis of the assumption that: “you could be literally chained to the loom that you are operating, working for 16 hours a day and be denied sunlight and sufficient food”; you already lose your credibility to many of us DBD’s. Presumably you want to improve working condition for children in desh (not to mention, protect union jobs in your desh), so if you can’t convince us DBD’s to see reason, do you seriously think you can convince real deshis?
So you think that pre-July 2005 there weren’t many articles about India’s ills or there weren’t enough? You’re right, that travel piece in the NYT about Darjeeling on Oct 14, coming just two days after the PM seemed to back away from the 123, couldn’t have been mere coincedence and did seem too laudatory in its descriptiveness of the lush tea gardens without addressing tea plantation ills that are all too prevalent. It was probably intended to lavishly praise the CPM because after all, Darjeeling is in West Bengal, and maybe they would respond to some favorable press and change their position on the 123 agreement.
Or was it the Sept. 27 article about ragpickers yearning for dignity in Delhi that unintentionally undermined the agreement and made PM Singh just plain angry? They should fire the woman who wrote it — she clearly wasn’t on board with the plan.
If you believe the popular press is all in on the conspiracy or controlled by some invisible hand then, well, believe away.
Indian kids worked all spring at McDonalds in Kolkata until it blew up.
13 Jasmine
–> When did the (non)availability of funds stop politicians in India from doing what is necessary ? In case of tamil nadu, politicians complain of empty treasury all the time but that doesnt prevent them from gifting free bicycles or TVs in election season. But the mid day meal scheme(even with corruption in its implementation is some places) was a worthwhile initiative.
25 Amrita
–> Do you have links where I can read about it ? In TN, it is accepted as fact that MGR introduced it when he was in power and the later day narrative has been that his experience growing up poor drove him to introduce that program. I would be curious to see if MGR did borrow from Sen(and the committee).
Corporate serf, your argument makes no sense. It is almost always difficult to persuade people who are very privileged to recognize social problems. I think you are willfully ignoring the difference between child labor and summer jobs. One needs to be 16 and up to legally work here (I think if you’re fifteen, you can get a special permit), and there is a minimum wage and a maximum number of hours one can work. And I think it is illegal for teenagers to do certain kinds of unsafe work. Oh yeah, and children have to go to school. Good grief, I can always count on commenters at Sepia Mutiny to defend the indefensible. I’m not saying we all have to agree on the solutions to take, but Corporate serf’s route is total dishonesty or sheer ignorance.
UNICEF has advocated for improving options for women as a way to end child labor. Download their 2005 report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_12_06SOWC2007.pdf. I think it is very good. Plenty of evidence shows that women allocate their wealth and income to children’s education and health more so than men. The informal labor sectors should be addressed systematically. The 2005 UNIFEM Progress of the World’s Women report has a wealth information about the challenges of organizing home-based workers and providing social protection to them. My understanding is that the growing consensus in the development community and advocates is that changes to social norms, incentive policies, law, micro, and macro schemes all need to take place in order to alleviate intractable poverty and the child labor. We all need to press our governments to recommit to the millennium development goals, which includes universal primary education.
How about if the corporations and companies prominently labeled their products that use child labor as “uses child labor” and let the customers decide for themselves if they want to buy the product or not? Now that’s what I’d call free market – informed customer making a free choice with all the information on hand, and transparency in business methods. Imagine you walk into an H&M store (randomly picked, apologies to H&M fans) and there is a huge sign right in front that greets you with “Child Labor Product Section – this way” – you follow it to see pictures of smiling kids displayed on the wall right above the stack of jeans, just for that personal touch. Nothing like connecting with the human being who lovingly sewed the buttons on your shirt. I think Whole Foods already does something similar in their produce section with pictures and stories of farmers who grew those tomatoes you are about to put into your shopping basket. So, any corporate/free-market enthusiasts in the house? 🙂 🙂
this is crazy – why not just give the clothes to the Red Cross or UNHCR. Lots of people need clothes.
amardeep,
You’re giving links to IBN and UK Observer?? Are you serious? Have you no integrity?? Pick a serious news source, like this.
The Midday meal scheme was pioneered (and propogated in a big way) by Kamaraj when he was the CM (i.e. donkeys years ago). MGR made it universal.
Sen was a Johnny come lately bandwagon jumper who endosed it after the midday meal scheme had been well established for decades.
Links on a school which hindu claims was the prototype for the scheme. I am sure wiki has something
Incidentally Kamaraj’s predecessor as a CM had also had a plan to try to reconcile economic realities with the need for an education. The infamous Heriditory Occupation Plan
Instead of hereditary occupation, make it vocational training – then its a plan which can be useful even today. With a minimum age limit, of course. in fact, more holistic approaches are necessary instead of only banning child labor, and not looking at the rest of the problem (but no point expecting politicians to do that, sigh).
Like all other problems facing India, this too has no one answer to it.
Ardy is right. This issue is entwined with the equally pressing problems of overpopulation, lack of education, and lack of jobs. One cannot be resolved without resolving the others, and it is not a matter of a day .. it will certainly take a decade more, at the very least. I’ve lived in India most of my life, and it is very common to see children employed in various jobs, some hazardous (which need an immediate and definite stop) and others menial (tea shop chotus and little maid servants). At the risk of being judged, I am going to mention that for some years my mother had employed a woman and her daughter (must have been 12 or 13) who would handle the domestic chores in the house. However there were certain ground rules that mom had set – the girl had to go to school, and would help with the easier tasks in the house (dusting/mopping). Mom also regularly gave books/clothes/food to the family. By refusing the employ the child, I doubt she would have helped the family much. There would just have been another mouth for the parents to feed (they had 7 kids), and at least this way the family could live a little better. I think these are the kind of steps we need to take right now to eventually bid good bye to child labor. I too would like to see an India free of child labor, but I don’t think it is a one step Stop-Child-Labor-Now solution. It’s easy to theorize from here, but reality is much harder and more complicated than our idealistic solutions. Just my 2 paise.
Corporate serf, your argument makes no sense … Dude, this is the comment that I am responding to:
In India (and other parts of South Asia) you could be literally chained to the loom that you are operating, working for 16 hours a day and be denied sunlight and sufficient food, leave alone school
there is child slavery in the us too, and just as illegal as in india
More generally, you want to impose a price floor for labour; correct? Just to satisfy your sensitive soul? Sure recipe for large scale unemployment. Feel free to not shop at Gap / Walmart, whatever. Your money is your money, unless it is someone else’s money, in which case it is government’s to be given to you as “Trade Adjustment Aid”
Dude, from where I stand, free trade is the only fair trade
I’m a white-American living in Delhi. I cried when I read the front page of the paper on Monday about the Gap story. The whole thing is very complicated and very sad. Perhaps GAP could have approached the issue better–by punishing the people running the subcontract company and following through with paying the children for the work they have done and setting them up with safe-homes and school. That would be better than just pulling out of the contract and causing more poverty.
But the other thing that bothers me is the typical attitude in Times of India for instance. No one wants to take responsibilty for the problem. Everyone knows it is a problem, as an article in Times of India on Tuesday said,”it is illegal for children to work, it is illegal for children to beg… but poverty is not illegal.” The Indian paper and company points the finger at GAP, saying that it should not be able to just pull out of the contract. GAP blames the company for note following the guidelines–but maybe GAP was demanding an unrealistic price for clothing… Isn’t anyone sorry for their role in the whole mess, whether it was a conscious role or not? Who will stop blaming others and start doing something to change things?