Martha, Robin
and Diko's Big Fairtrade Adventure
Martha, Robin and Diko,
aged 14 and 15, are pupils at Cheney School in Oxford. Environmental
and ethical issues form an important part of their school's curriculum.
The school has its own fair trade
club and has recently been awarded with an Eco-School Green Award.
Ultra cheap clothes
They're angry at how their school uniforms are made and at what they
see as the greed of the high street clothes shops, where the workers
seldom benefit financially from the clothes they make.
India here we come
So, they are embarking on a mission of a lifetime to India to redress
the balance. They are seeking the means to make their own ethical
school shirt to sell to their fellow pupils back home. As Martha explains,
"We don't want our school shirts to be made in a sweat shop.
We want to be sure the workers who made them were treated fairly and
paid well. Our mission in India is to make an ethical school shirt.
One we can be proud of."
Touching cotton for the first
time
During the course of their road trip through the cotton fields and
factories, they experience at first hand the darker side of the garment
industry - and they are stunned when they discover that the average
annual wage for an Indian worker is £493. Robin is particularly
shocked as he reveals he gets double that in pocket money alone.
Surprises and shocks at a local
cotton field
Deep in the Indian countryside at a local cotton field, the teenagers
discover that some of the workers there are as young as nine. Rather
than attend school like their Oxford contemporaries, these Indian
children spend their days bent double over the fields working for
60 pence a day. The girls in the field show the teenagers how they
pollinate each cotton plant individually by hand. They do this twelve
hours a day, seven days a week, come rain or shine.
Martha and Diko are further stunned when an Indian worker explains
that only the girls do this, not boys or men, as it is felt that the
males cannot bend down for as long a time as the females. From this
moment on, it really begins to hit home to the Oxford threesome how
different their lives could have been had they simply been born somewhere
else.
No Fairtrade = Low Price for
Cotton + Pesticides + Bad Health
Next stop: Warangal, the heart of one of India's huge cotton growing
areas, where every shop there seems to sell chemical pesticides. It
transpires that there is no fair trade there, so the farmers earn
a very low price for their crops. In order to try to grow more cotton,
they use lots of chemical pesticides but they do not take precautions
like covering their faces or their bodies. This can have severe health
consequences, particularly when they spray in the hot sun. As local
fair trade campaigner B A Hepsibah explains to the teenagers. "They
develop nausea, sickness and some, they'll have nervous problems."
Reality shock
Many of the pesticides they use here are so harmful that they are
banned in UK. Yet they are used by most of India's four million cotton
farmers. B A Hepsibah leads the shell-shocked threesome back to the
village to show them the physical realities of how these pesticides
have affected people here. They see youngsters who have been blinded
and crippled as a result of the chemicals.
Martha, Robin and Diko are clearly upset by what they see and learn.
"It's terrible to think that the clothes we buy back home could
be responsible for harming people in that way," says Martha.
"It makes us more determined than ever to make a difference."
Fairtrade cotton at last
The teenagers finally discover that Indian farmers and workers do
not have to be exploited. After another eight hours on the road, they
finally reach a place where fair trade cotton is grown, in the remote
Indian village of Choupanguda.
Organic cotton farming
Kusum Rao, the head farmer, shows them around and explains that all
the cotton grown here is fair trade, which means the farmers get a
better price for their crops. The cotton is also organic, which means
they do not use any chemical pesticides. Kusum Rao is now receiving
a fair price for his crop and measures have also been adopted to protect
the environment and prevent the local children from working in the
fields.
Hanging out in Choupanguda
Time to meet the locals... and reflect. "Fairtrade and organic
is about a lot more than having a label on your clothes. It really
affects people's lives."
Searching for a factory to make
their ethical school shirt
Now they have their fairtrade organic cotton, the teenagers have to
find a factory to make their shirt. So they travel to Tirupur the
garment capital of India.
Which factory will finally make
our school top?
The threesome visit factories where good working conditions are guaranteed,
and in the end they have the choice of two ethical organisations which
are prepared to produce the very garment that they are after - an
ethical and cool school top! But which one is most in-keeping with
what their trip is all about?
Decisions, decisions...
Making their final decision proves to be a complex task.
£4 per shirt
The girl's and boy's shirts are finally made - for just £4 each.
The order is placed.
Back in England...
Back in England, our adventurers tell their school all about Martha,
Robin and Diko's Big Fairtrade Adventure.
Who wants to buy an ethical school
shirt?
Their final worry... will they be able to convince their classmates
to actually buy one?
Now, if they can produce an organic, ethically-made school shirt,
why can't the big high street brands do the same?
