TRAID funded project ‘Girls at Risk’ secures compensation for child labourers in first legal test case!
In the first quarter of 2010, the TRAID funded Girls at Risk project delivered by the International Childcare Trust (ICT) has made fantastic progress with the first ever test case successfully brought to court ordering a spinning mill to compensate a group of unpaid girl child labourers.
To raise awareness in the region, ICT has created a network with like minded NGO's to lobby and advocate to end the exploitation of girl children in textile mills in the Dindigul District in India.
When 132 girls were not been paid by a textile mill in the region the network got involved interviewing all the girls and presenting the findings at a public meeting in Dindigul. At the meeting it was agreed that girls being promised a dowry in return for work is a state wide problem and that the Women's Commission - an independent government body - needed to be involved.
A powerful organisation which reviews constitutional and legal safeguards for women, the Women's Commission recommends remedial legislative measures; facilitates redressal of grievances; and advises the government on all policy matters affecting women. Because it has judicial power, it can convene public hearings and appoint judges whose rulings are legally binding.
The Women’s Commission agreed to hold a hearing attended by around 200 people including a high level government official from the Tamil Nadu Department of Labour, several textile mill owners, NGO's, and 42 victims of the marriage scheme.
The judgement ruled that:
1) All 42 victims present at the hearing should be awarded immediate compensation;
2) ‘Apprentices’ who choose to/are forced to terminate their contracts at the textile mills under the marriage scheme must in future be paid proportionally to the amount of time worked by each individual. Mills cannot continue to pay apprentices ONLY a lump sum amount upon completion of a full three year term; and
3) The Tamil Nadu Women’s Commission can conduct spot-checks on any district textile mill to check working and payment conditions.
The case received extensive news coverage in the English language newspaper the Deccan Herald which has a readership of 860,000- click here to read the article - and Dinamalar the Number 1 Tamil newspaper.
TRAID will keep you posted on project developments.
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