Social Responsibility

In the developing world, child labour can still be found in many parts of everyday life. This is a cultural issue and needs to be sensitively addressed in a holistic manner. UPL’s Advanta team is implementing a CSR initiative called ‘United Against Child Labour’ (Project UACL) with the objective to eliminate all forms of child labour in seed supplier farms and to ensure education for children.

The first awareness program on the issues related to child labour of 2018-19 under Project UACL was held at Jambhora of Buldana district in Maharashtra, India on 21st Nov 2018 while the second was conducted at Koppal, Karnataka, India. Emphasis was laid on the importance of education for children at these events. The events saw participation from the UPL Advanta team, government agriculture officers, government education officers and the farming community.

The awareness program focused on :

The need to eliminate child labour which happens knowingly or unknowingly in seed production.

The need to act collectively to curb child labour and at the same time to ensure that every child is going to school.

Outlining how children are the future of the society and by involving them in laborious works they are denied proper education which not only affects their development but also affect the nation’s development.

Explaining that education is the right of every child and nobody has the right to deny it to them.

Emphasizing that fighting child labour is a collective responsibility as every adult is responsible to combat child labour.

Encouraging all stakeholders to immediately report to proper authority if they see any instance of child labour.

Announcing the strict ‘No Child Labor Clause’ by UPL Advanta which states that wherever, whoever is found guilty of employing child labour, Advanta will then stop procuring his produce and ban him for life.

Event ended with all participants ‘taking a pledge’ that they will not employ any child labour and report instantly if they see any child working on farms. There are more programmes scheduled over the coming months to take Project UACL across the country.