OMG, did you hear about the 70% sale in ZARA?
30 min later ended up in the store. Well, I barely do shopping but I have to admit, if there is a big sale out there by one of my favorite brands, I try to pop up in the store asap, just like many of my peers.
Do I buy always something? No.
But there is certainly something I do each time. Check once a tag for the price! Oh wait, there is also another thing written under the price, with a low font size. Is that a country name? Correct, a country where the fabric is made from, a country that many of us do not know where it is located on the map, yet we fight each other in the store to buy that fabric from “the place”.
So, why is “the country” important as long as I get my good/fabric and pay for that? Here what I found through Unicef:
60% of workers at the mills…in India were under-18…the youngest workers were 15 when they joined.
Does it evoke something in your mind? Correct, it is CHILD LABOR.
An estimated 170 million children are engaged in child labour, or 11% of the global population of children, with many making textiles and garments to satisfy the demand of consumers.
Source: labs.theguardian.com/unicef-child-labour/.
In short my fellows, we are being satisfied through a labor of a child and we carry that on ourselves everyday. 👏🏼
Forbidden or not forbidden
Fortunately, child labour is forbidden by law in most countries.
Or should I maybe say it is “quasi forbidden”? Unfortunately, yes.
The supply chain in fashion is not different than in food or any other industry. The bigger industry is, the more complex is to have a control on the every stage of the production. Therefore, even though many brands set guidelines for their suppliers — mostly the work is sub-contracted — , it is almost impossible to track how or by whom the fabric is produced, processed and distributed.
Companies that sell their products in Europe and the US have no clue where the textiles come from. Maybe they know their first supplier and there are codes of conduct in place, but further down the chain in the lower tiers it is very difficult to understand where the cotton comes from.
Is there really a solution?
You need to get out of that vicious circle of poverty to decline child labour.
Is that really the right solution? Will decreasing the poverty prevent the child labor? Will we ever see a decrease in poverty soon? Will there not be always people who would like to take advantage of a child and cheap labor?
Never-ending questions, yet no practical solution? 🤔
Well, there is indeed one. A solution that might not remove the child labor, but can drastically mitigate it.
Let me tell you about a technology that can have an impact on a child’s childhood, a family’s life and a society’s destiny.
Sounds so not true, right? Blockchain enables each stake holder in supply chain, including consumers, of a good/fabric etc., to track the every stage of production. In fashion industry, that means all those brands who are complaining about the complexity of the process will be able to clearly track the production, the process, the distribution and so on.
Isn’t that awesome? Only if this is the actual problem as many claim..
Blockchain in supply chain?
Companies such as OriginTrail, VeChain Foundation and Waltonchain_EN are actively working on blockchain solutions addressing missing transparency in the supply chain industry. Walmart Labs has recently awarded an European company OriginTrail for its Blockchain supply chain protocol which, in essence, enables customers to verify the provenance of every item sold and the local retailers to ensure the origin’s compliance .
To sum up, we may have found out something that will make our world a bit better place. So, why don’t we let everybody know about it? 🤗
If you are interested in transparency in supply chain, be sure to check out these posts by Adrian Barwicki: The path to Supply Chain Transparency and Chicken, farm and blockchain.
