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Embroidered T-shirt: Price £4, cost misery

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/746892 [2008-6-26]

Tag : indian shirt

"Until this magic spell is broken, the consumer will keep shoppingand giving the impression that they're not bothered. The knock-oneffects of this - for consumers - are that our wardrobes arebursting with redundant fast fashion (two million tonnes oftextiles are dumped in the UK every year), without us knowinganything about its origins; there's nothing on the label apart fromwashing instructions. We continue to block uncertainty out of theirminds."
Lucy, like many experts in the field, believes the BBC'sinvestigation into Primark should now act as a watermark; a line inthe sand for both retailers and customers:
"We've had 12 years of excuses from retailers and manufacturers,this now has to change. It is a massive consumer issue. Who wantsto wear something made by a kid crouched over a table in some fetidhell-hole? We need to know the real trade off. If retailers saythey can provide clothes for nothing without abusing basic humanrights and exploiting workers, we should start asking for some realproof of these rather strange economics."
But if shoppers are slowly starting to wake up to the horrors ofchild labour, developing world suppliers are more determined thanever to keep the prying eyes of foreigners away from their units.My experience in reporting such stories in India, Pakistan,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka shows they are even willing to resort toviolence.
Whilst carrying out an undercover investigation for the Observerlast year I was badly beaten in a sweatshop in the lawless HaryanaState border area of northern India pursuing the story.
But I got off lightly compared to the fate of some others, saysBhuwan Ribhu.
"We have lost a number of activists, murdered in the course oftheir duties, others have been dragged in chains behind cars andhad threats made against their families. A lot of money is at stakehere and life becomes cheap in such a desperate and greed-filledenvironment. Remember, above all, the money that is creating thisdesperation comes directly from the wallets of Western consumers."
Dan McDougall is a foreign correspondent with the Observer.Panorama's Primark: On the Rack is broadcast on BBC One on Monday23 June, at 2100 BST. Or catch up using the BBC iPlayer .

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