Indian 'slave' children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap

Yet another example of capitalsim at its worse. Given what many top brands charge for their clothing in USA retail outlets, it borders on the obscence that production work is outsourced to foreign countries where the poor and most vulnerable end up working long hours under terrible conditions for a pathetic wage. This story from The Observer (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2200590,00.html) discloses some of the Gap's dirty linen. Sadly, I find it hard to believe that no one at The Gap knew:

Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined for Gap Kids, one of the most successful arms of the high street giant. Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work, as well as threats and beatings. Gap said it was unaware that clothing intended for the Christmas market had been improperly subcontracted to a sweatshop using child labour. It announced it had withdrawn the garments involved while it investigated breaches of the ethical code imposed by it three years ago.

The Observer discovered the children in a filthy sweatshop working on piles of beaded children's blouses marked with serial numbers that Gap admitted corresponded with its own inventory. The company has pledged to convene a meeting of its Indian suppliers as well as withdrawing tens of thousands of the embroidered girl's blouses from the market, before they reach the stores. The hand-stitched tops, which would have been sold for about £20, were destined for shelves in America and Europe in the next seven days in time to be sold to Christmas shoppers.

Gap said in a statement from its headquarters in San Francisco: 'We firmly believe that under no circumstances is it acceptable for children to produce or work on garments. These allegations are deeply upsetting and we take this situation very seriously. All of our suppliers and their subcontractors are required to guarantee that they will not use child labour to produce garments. In this situation, it's clear one of our vendors violated this agreement and a full investigation is under way.'