• Bayer Links
  • Country Sites
  • Internet Links
  • Conditional Links

Topic: Protecting Children's Rights


Protecting Children’s Rights in Agriculture


Every day on her way to school, Chandra Kalar and the other children from her village pass the fields in which now only adults work.

Child labor is widespread in many parts of the world. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimates that more than 200 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are employed full time. It is particularly common in the poorer regions of Latin America, Africa and Asia, and a matter of course in many families that children will contribute to the families’ subsistence from an early age. As a result, children and young people are often denied access to a proper school education – which in turn robs them of important career opportunities later in life.

To globally protect children's rights, the United Nations have authored "The Convention on the Rights of the Child". Since 1989 it was ratified by more than 190 countries. Article 32 addresses the subject of child labor: "States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

Bayer, and thus Bayer CropScience as well, is strongly committed to observing the rights of children. This commitment is based on the Global Compact, a worldwide initiative of the United Nations, which stipulates the abolition of child labor as one of 10 human rights principles. Bayer is a founding member of the Global Compact, to which many other companies also belong.

Bayer does not tolerate child labor


Hard-working Vinod is the pride and joy of his father Paulose and his mother Amritha. Even his grandmother and aunt (right) are happy about the opportunities he gains by attending the Creative Learning Center.
As a clear consequence of this commitment, Bayer does not tolerate child labor. Commercial success at the expense of humanitarian principles is not an option for the company. Bayer holds not just itself, but also its subcontractors to this commitment, and therefore undertakes to combat child labor throughout its sphere of influence.

In India, where the child labor rate is traditionally high, Bayer CropScience goes a step further. In the context of its Child Care Program that is specially tailored to the situation in India, the company makes sure that its subcontractors likewise reject the use of child labor, and also actively supports local educational opportunities for children – thus offering the children an alternative to working in the fields.

Creative Learning Center prepare children for enrollment in state-run schools

One example is the support provided to Creative Learning Centers (CLCs) in the Indian State of Andra Pradesh, which prepare children for enrollment in state-run schools. By establishing an agricultural vocational school in Hyderabad for young people from the age of about 15, Bayer CropScience has additionally put in place the framework for enabling disadvantaged children from a child labor background to receive adequate vocational training subsequent to their school career. What’s more, this program is also open to young people who were not able to go to school as a result of child labor.


The day in the "Creative Learning Center": Packed in tightly, the boys and girls eagerly copy down the characters written on the blackboard in the national language Telugu by teacher Raman Janegulu.

These initiatives are implemented in conjunction with projects aimed at providing farmers with incentives not to employ children. Such incentives include small loan offers, programs designed to increase productivity or the granting of special payments.

Since 2006, the activities of Bayer CropScience have been independently monitored by auditing company Ernst & Young India as a measure to safeguard the long-term success of the company’s broad-based Child Care Program.

In 2007 the company started to introduce the Child Care Program at its subsidiary Nunhems, which produces vegetable seed products in India. This production is concentrated in the state of Karnataka.

[ last update: Monday, July 14, 2008 ]