Source: BBC News
he noise was deafening and air in the factory in northern Gujarat was so thick with cotton dust it was like a snowstorm at night.
Women and girls, some no more than 10 or 11, fed machines with raw cotton picked from the nearby fields.
It is a process known as ginning – one end of a commercial supply chain that ends up as clothes and textiles in high street shops around the world. Globally, annual revenues from the industry are measured in the trillions of dollars.
Many household-name retailers concede they do not know exactly how the cotton they use is farmed and processed. Yet, for years, labour activists here have campaigned for their help.
Read More: India’s exploited child cotton workers
Cartoon by Bob Moran
