1:41 p.m., April 3, 2009----Marsha Dickson, professor and chairperson of the University of Delaware's Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, was recently named chair of the Fair Labor Association's (FLA) monitoring committee.

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The FLA is a collaborative effort to improve working conditions in factories around the world. By working cooperatively with forward-looking companies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and universities, the FLA has developed a workplace code of conduct based on International Labour Organization standards and created a practical system of monitoring, remediation and verification to achieve these standards.

Dickson has been a member of the board of directors of the FLA since 2002 and has been active in the monitoring and communications committees.

In December, Dickson traveled to Hyderabad, India, to participate in a stakeholder forum on child labor in vegetable seed production hosted by the FLA.

The FLA has been working with Syngenta Seeds, Inc. to improve working conditions on farms in India. The forum shared the results of the FLA's monitoring of farms in India against the its code of conduct for labor standards and working conditions and sought input from attendees on how best to remediate the problems found.

Attending were representatives of nongovernmental organizations and labor rights groups in India, Syngenta staff based in India and corporate headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, as well as representatives from other multinational agribusinesses - including Bayer and Monsanto -- with seed production in the area.

Syngenta approached the FLA in 2003 because of international media and activist campaigns regarding child labor in their cotton seed industry. When Syngenta made the business decision to sell its cotton seed division worldwide, the project was transitioned to vegetable seed production in the Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Karnataka states in India.

In addition to attending the one-day forum, Dickson traveled with FLA staff based in India and representatives of the M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF) to visit a rural region about 300 kilometers south of Hyderabad where cotton and vegetable seeds are grown.

The MVF actively works to eliminate child labor and to universalize opportunities for all children to receive at least an elementary education. The MVF monitors farms for child labor and then works with community officials and farmers to get the children off the farms and back into schools.

Dickson and the others visited a camp where around 20 to 25 girls ages five to 12 reside and go to school. Some had come off the farms only a few days earlier.

“The young girls expressed great pleasure about joining the camp because of the regular meals provided, unlike at home where they often encounter food shortages,” said Dickson. “They were also enjoying studying and making friends, and staying out of the heat and dust in the fields.”

Article by Beth Chajes