WEST YORKSHIRE: The recent ITV News at Ten special reports on the exploitation of children in the Indian sandstone industry this week highlighted the plight of children as young as five and the hard back-breaking labour they undertake on a daily basis.
None of this is a surprise to UK hard landscaping plc, Marshalls. Referred to by ITV as an ‘ethical supplier’, the company has been campaigning to raise awareness of the use of child labour in the sandstone industry in India for the past four years.
It is also working with its Indian supplier and local NGO, Hadoti Hast Shlip Sansthan.
Chris Harrop, group marketing director, who took part in the ITV report said:
“The industry cannot continue to deny the facts and must now respond. The answer, however, is not for importers, retailers or others to withdraw product and stop trading with Indian quarries and suppliers, but to engage in the process of improving the supply chain, tackling the human rights and worker rights abuses and improve conditions for the communities who depend upon this industry for their living."
