Mumbai: Monsanto India’s Human Rights Anti-Child Labour initiatives under the Child Care Program (CCP), have reduced child labour in cotton seed production fields from over 20% in 2004 (prior to Monsanto acquiring its cotton seed business) to less than 0.5% in 2011. Further, the number of Child Labour Free Villages, i.e. villages with 50 acres and above with Zero Child Labour deployment, has gone up to 25 in 2011. These findings were announced today by the Multi-stakeholder Steering Committee that leads the Child Care Program (CCP), championed by Monsanto, a leading agriculture company.

CCP is being implemented in partnership with farmers, under the guidance of the multi stakeholder committee with NGOs – Voluntary Organisation of Rural Development Society (VORDS), Glocal Research & Consultancy, Center for Agriculture Research and Extension (CARE), among others and several seed industry representatives. Guided by noted social scientist, Dr Davuluri, the CCP works through well-synchronized efforts of all the stakeholders, including intensive awareness campaigns, outreach to farming communities across states, effective incentive-disincentive schemes and strict compliance with guidelines with the help of third-party audits.

In the past year itself, the program has witnessed an increase in its reach by around 2,500 farmers and added 1,000 acres in its coverage. It now includes 13,139 farmers and 8,479 acres of farmland.

CCP recognizes “community efforts” for an effective outcome, and focuses on new seed growers. This approach ensures that the whole village works together to achieve the ‘Model Village’ status. Today, there are 14 model villages in Andhra Pradesh (10 from Kurnool in Nandyal district, three from Gadwal in Mahboobnagar district and one from the B Kotha Kota region in Chittor district), seven in Gujarat (four from Bodeli and three from Khedbrahma regions) and four in Karnataka (three from Yelburga and one from Gajendragad regions).

Mr Devappa Hireyhal, 40, a farmer from Mudhol village of Yelburga Taluq, Karnataka, who has participated in the CCP initiatives for three seasons said, “I am very pleased to learn that our village has been declared a Model Village with our anti-child labour efforts. We will continue to practise and strengthen the anti-child labour program collectively”. Mr Hireyhal had planted cotton on acre in the last season and got more than 4.5 quintals yield. He is economically secure and has willingly joined hands with CCP.

According to Y R Mohana Rao, Lead – Human Rights, Monsanto India, “The CCP efforts are progressing very well and working towards reducing child labour in cotton seed farms. We are thankful to our partners and stakeholders who have worked hard for the last five years with us to achieve this success. The biggest contribution comes from farmers who have not only cooperated but have taken ownership in addressing the last mile challenge of ensuring reduction of child labour in their farms. We are confident, with our partners’ support and farmers’ spirited cooperation that we will be able to achieve the goal of zero child labour.”

“Under Monsanto’s leadership and CCP’s support, our partnership has grown and has made a significant impact by reducing the incidence of child labour in cotton seed farms in India. The biggest contributor in the success of this effort has been unqualified commitment of all the partners involved towards raising awareness and empowering farmers to stop child labour in the fields” said Dr T Narasimha Reddy, Chief Executive Officer, CARE.

With the commitment to reduce to Child labour in farms to ZERO, Monsanto setup a Human Rights Program in collaboration with UN ILO in 2006. The program is driven through the following key components:

• A Steering Committee comprising of representatives from various stakeholders directs the farmer program, with special attention on field team training by on ground NGOs
• Imposing a “No child labour” clause in the farmers and third-party contracts
• Massive Farmer Awareness Campaigns
• Field Audits – in 2010-11 alone, over 22,000 audits were conducted by the CCP monitoring team, including joint visits by NGOs. The rigid audit process includes a series of internal and external audits through the field teams and external agencies like SGS India and Level Works.
• Incentive/Disincentive Schemes – Incentives are awarded to farmers who have complied with the anti-child labour policy. In case any violations are found, the child is removed from the field immediately and Monsanto stops production with the farmer for the following season.

Towards child rehabilitation, another initiative under CCP, Monsanto Fund Learning Center (MFLC) has successfully completed four years in partnership with VORDS, an NGO at Nandyal. This center aims at enabling children to get them back to mainstream education. The project is being implemented by NGOs – VORDS has achieved a total of 400 enrollments so far, which defines a success story of the efforts by the CCP.

The CCP is also committed to promote a culture of safety on our cotton seed production fields and provide Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits for farmer protection and safety training. Snakebite-prone areas provided with anti-venom protection kits, which has saved 13 lives in AP, Karnataka and Gujarat cotton seed production till date.