Researching Root Causes of Child Labour in India’s Spices Supply Chain

The Centre is supporting Save the Children India with a research project to identify the root causes of child labour in the Indian spices supply chain of an international agribusiness. This research is part of a larger project that aims to implement tangible changes in the clients’ supply chain to prevent child labour and respect child rights. 

India is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices. The risk of children working in this sector is extremely high as most of the child labour in India is found in the agricultural sector. Through extensive desk review of secondary data, the report will outline the challenges and also identify gaps in information surrounding child rights and child labour, particularly in the Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh regions.

The Centre is playing a leading role in the literature review and in defining key research questions, and will support Save the Children India in the subsequent steps via a review process. 

The research provides a clear overview of India’s spices industry and the composition of their spices supply chain from a child rights perspective. It will identify major child rights risks and put forward recommendations for preventing child labour, supporting working families and improving working conditions. The results of the research will feed into a second project phases whereby recommendations will be implemented in practice.