Children found working at India distillery went there by school bus, official says

Som Distilleries and Breweries

19/06/2024 10:48

By Arpan  Chaturvedi and Tanvi Mehta
       NEW DELHI, June 19 (Reuters) - Some of the 58 children
found working illegally in a distillery of India's Som Group
were transported to the factory in school buses, the chief of
the Indian government child rights agency overseeing case told
Reuters.
    Police in the state of Madhya Pradesh launched an
investigation into Som after the National Commission for
Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) last week found 39 boys and
19 girls working at the factory. The agency also released 
photos of children's hands it said showed burns due to contact
with chemicals.
    "They were enrolled in a school and would come in school
buses. So people thought they were going to the school, but they
worked in the liquor factory," NCPCR Chief Priyank Kanoongo said
on Wednesday.
    Som did not respond to a request for comment on NCPCR's
remarks.
    In a statement to the stock exchange earlier this week, Som
Distilleries and Breweries Ltd  SDB.NS  said the concerns are
related to a plant run by its "associate private limited
company" which used labour supplied by contractors, who may not
have carried out proper age verification checks.
    Their services have been terminated, Som said, adding it is
cooperating with the authorities. The company's shares have
fallen 7% this week.
    Kanoongo said he would ask the local authorities why no
arrests have been made and the distillery had not been sealed. 
    "We will soon send a notice to the local authorities," he
added.
    Repeated calls to Vikas Kumar Shahwal, the senior Madhya
Pradesh police official who is overseeing the case, were not
answered.
    Som is one of the smaller distilleries in India's thriving
alcohol industry where both foreign and domestic players
operate. Its website describes it as an "internationally
acclaimed brand" available in over 20 markets including the
United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. 
    Child labour is a concern in India. In 2021, Reuters
reported that an external audit of two Carlsberg warehouses had
found underage labourers at a location in the eastern Indian
state of Jharkhand.
    Carlsberg at the time said "the third-party provider was
terminated immediately in 2018 following the findings in the
internal report."
    

 (Reporting by Arpan  Chaturvedi; Additional reproting Jatindra
Dash and Indranil Sarkar; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Miral
Fahmy)
 ((Arpan.Chaturvedi@thomsonreuters.com;))