In school instead of in the fields – this is how Proagro is protecting Indian children

The way to a life

Every day on her way to shool, Chandra Kalar passes the fields in which now only adults work. The eleven-year-old girl is happy to at last have the chance to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Although school is compulsory in Andhra Pradesh from the age of six, by no means everyone actually goes to school – especially in rural areas: in 2005, 7.4 percent of all children between the ages of six and 14 in this region received no schooling.

In many cotton fields in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, hybrid seed is being produced for a subsidiary of Bayer CropScience. Boys and girls used to work in these fields too. The company now buys seed only from those suppliers who agree not to use child labor. In return, the producers are paid more money.

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The school day in the 'Creative Learning Center': Packed in tightly, the boys and girls eagerly copy down the characters written on the blackboard in the national language Telugu by teacher Raman Janegulu (Image 2). Telugu has its own alphabet. It is one of the most widely spoken languages in India and the mother tongue for more than 70 million people.

“Are there really children in Germany who don’t like going to school?” Chandra Kalar can hardly believe it. Because for her and her friends, the school in the little village of Armagidda practically guarantees a better life. The eleven-year-old girl can hardly wait to put on her school uniform each morning, pack her school bag and set off with her brother Vinod.

It is a long way. And it takes her past many cotton fields in which hybrid seed is being produced by manually pollinating parent plants with various genetic properties. In most of the fields, laborers are bent over the plants. With deft movements, they remove the anther from each cotton flower. On the next day, the flower pistils will be pollinated with different pollen. Here in the state of Andhra Pradesh, in what is known as the “cotton belt” of India, nearly everyone knows how to do it. For many, seasonal work in the cotton fields is the only means of supporting a family.

“Before,” says Raman Janegulu, “children also used to work in these fields. But now most go to school.” He should know because he is a teacher in Armagidda. “We are happy each time we get a new pupil here. After all, each schoolchild is like a gift to us.” Each day, starting at 10 a.m., Raman Janegulu teaches around 25 children in a house thatched with straw. At the front of the classroom, there is a blackboard with a few characters in Telugu written on it. The children put great effort into copying down the characters. And when they have finished, they proudly hold their slate high.
Is school life the same as anywhere else in the world? Not quite. These pupils attend a Creative Learning Center, an institution that prepares them for integration into a state school.

Hard-working Vinod is the pride and joy of his father Paulose and his mother Amritha. Even his grandmother and aunt (left) are happy about the opportunities he gains by attending the Creative Learning Center.

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Hard-working Vinod is the pride and joy of his father Paulose and his mother Amritha. Even his grandmother and aunt (left) are happy about the opportunities he gains by attending the Creative Learning Center.

There are now around 30 of these Creative Learning Centers in the region, two-thirds of which are supported by Bayer CropScience. They owe their existence to a joint initiative of Bayer CropScience subsidiary Proagro and the Indian-based Naandi Foundation. “The centers are an integral part of our efforts to eliminate child labor,” explains Ananda, a spokeswoman for Proagro in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh. “Protecting children from work in the fields is only half the task. The other is to provide them with a school education which gives them the possibility of a future worth living.” The child protection project was set up in 2003 and has continued to evolve since then. The project was based on a simple principle: “We do not tolerate child labor.” However, it soon became clear that declarations of intention on their own do not achieve anything. Ways of putting them into practice also had to be found.

It was therefore decided that if farmers wanted to sell their products to Proagro, they would have to agree beforehand not to employ any children in their fields. This commitment became part of the supply contract between Proagro and the farmers. “To start with, of course, some farmers still didn’t keep to it,” reports Narasimha Reddy, one of the project managers. Perhaps they hoped that it would go unnoticed. But it didn’t. The fields are checked without prior warning by observers several times a month. And if children are found to be working there, the farmer concerned is confronted immediately. There is a warning the first time. If it happens again, the farmer is threatened with termination of the supply contract. Last season alone, this measure was resorted to on a number of occasions.

?Before, many children used to work in the fields. But now most of them go to school.? (Teacher Raman Janegulu)

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Proagro manager Suhas Joshi

“Positive encouragement is of course much more important to us than penalties,” says Proagro manager Suhas Joshi. All farmers who can show that they do not employ children therefore receive a bonus: in the current cultivation period, they are receiving 7.5 percent on top of the usual price. For farmer Melagiri Narasanna, this was reason enough to stop employing children completely this year. “Otherwise I will not get a bonus,” he says. He would also like a small loan, like his friend Raj. A Bayer guarantee saved him from having to go to the local money lender with his extortionate 20 percent interest rates.

But what is just as important for the project managers as the financial incentive is for everyone involved to be aware of how harmful child labor is. No easy task in a country so poor that many families are forced to resort to any means of earning money. Says company spokeswoman Ananda: “This is why it is so incredibly important for us also to speak to the parents in particular. They must understand what they are depriving their children of if they do not let them go to school, namely the prospect of a life worth living.”

By the start of 2006, more than 700 children had attended Creative Learning Centers, with centers set up by Bayer CropScience accounting for 600 of them. Almost all went on to attend a state school. Each name is painstakingly recorded on a list, and if someone stops coming to lessons, he and his parents are immediately contacted. “This is becoming increasingly unnecessary, however,” says project manager Reddy. “Now everyone actually knows how important education is.”
It is 3 p.m. and school is out in the Armagidda Creative Learning Center. Little Viresh is in no hurry. Full of dedication, he carries on painting a picture of his family: five laughing matchstick people. That morning, the teacher had said to him: “Today, we all have reason to be happy.” The observers returned from their latest inspection tour with the news that there are no more children working in Proagro fields. And that really is a reason to celebrate – in Armagidda, in Maldakal, and in all the other little villages where children can be children again. And not just cheap labor.

New start with Naandi

As Vice President, she is responsible for international partnerships.

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As Vice President, she is responsible for international partnerships. “The alliance with Proagro is proving so successful that we are hoping to use it as a basis for a model which other companies can follow.”

The Naandi Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1989 in India. The name comes from Sanskrit and means “new start.” Naandi has set itself the objective of fighting hunger, providing access to clean water, enabling children to have an education, and creating homes for the poor.

The establishment of “Creative Learning Centers” is part of a cooperation agreement between Proagro and Naandi. It also incorporates the objective of working together through motivational campaigns to achieve a change in the attitudes of parents, children and all members of the village community as regards child labor. Naandi has a great deal of experience with school projects and works closely with the government and the Ministry of Education.