ActionAid is launching a campaign calling for a change in corporate responsibility laws. Without such change, companies remain unaccountable for actions that can have ramifications the world over - and it is the poor and powerless who suffer most.

Working in the fields
The first time Suhasini Boya fainted while she worked in the cotton fields, the farmer shouted at her for slacking. "The smell of pesticide made me feel like vomiting," says the nine-year-old. "First it made my nose run and gave me a bad headache. Then I felt sick and dizzy." The next time Suhasini fainted was more serious. The farmer had to take the delirious girl to the nearest hospital. Later Suhasini discovered he’d docked the cost of her medical treatment from her 15 rupee (18p) daily wage.

Suhasini, one of Andhra Pradesh’s 82,000 child labourers, continued to work in the fields from 6am until 6pm, day in day out, while the cotton plants were being sprayed with sickeningly poisonous pesticide. She fainted several more times before her mother was taken ill with a fatal stomach ailment. Suhasini had to go to live with her uncle. She stopped working and got the opportunity to attend school instead.

Many child labourers continue to work in the cotton fields and recently, some have died in excruciating pain. On June 29, Mallesh Harijana, aged 13, ate a mango after spraying cottonseed pesticide from a leaking can, and without washing his hands. Fifteen minutes later, he was doubled up with stomach cramps; he died in the early hours of the following day. The post mortem revealed cause of death as pesticide poisoning. The Indian child rights organisation, The MV Foundation are investigating the deaths of 36 girls in apparently mysterious but similar circumstances.

Mallesh’s death and that of the girls marks a new and lethal turn in the practice of child labour. Although forbidden under the UN's rights of the child, according to the International Labour Organisation around 250 million children worldwide are currently working, most are employed in repetitive jobs with very long hours, these jobs are often dangerous. Despite recent laws that prohibit children younger than 14 working, India is home to the largest number of the world’s working children, with estimates of around 114 million children employed. Eighty per cent are employed in agriculture.

Hybrid cottonseed
In 2002, in a landmark report, Davuluri Venkateswarlu, director of ActionAid supported Glocal Research and Consultancy Services in Hyderabad, detailed the problems of hybridised cotton production, which requires ten times more labour and four and a half times more capital than the standard commercial cotton crop.

Damningly, the report linked child labour to multinational companies like Unilever, Syngenta, Monsanto, Bayer and Advanta, accusing these companies of profiting from the children’s labour. For today’s multinationals, keen to project an ethically shining image, the highly damaging revelations have had some effect. Today the number of child cotton labourers is decreasing.

The poorest suffer most
Most child workers are Dalits, the bottom layer of India’s complex caste system, and among the world’s most exploited people. Which is all part of the problem. These girls’ families have extremely low expectations, especially when it comes to educating girls who could be earning in the cotton fields.

ActionAid supports the Dalit Samakya group, which organised a mass protest and a file of information on Mallesh Harijana’s death, including his birth certificate and early school records with government stamped dates. Mallesh’s parents have lost their only wage earner. On the night he was poisoned, his parents fatally delayed hiring a jeep they could ill afford to take him from the local doctor to the nearest hospital. The 13-year-old died on the way.

Today his family’s grief is heart-wrenching. "We all ate Mallesh’s earnings to keep us alive but we couldn’t even afford to keep him alive," says his mother. "Mallesh was so selfless; we have been so selfish." Other bereaved families are reluctant to talk because, it’s said, they’ve been bought off.

This month ActionAid is mounting a campaign to pressurise companies into taking responsibility for their operations throughout the supply chain, and will be lobbying UK MPs to implement new legislation to bring them to book.