India to impound liquor firm Som's distillery over child labour (updated)

Som Distilleries and Breweries

19/06/2024 16:00

(Recasts with suspension of licences, police action)
    By Arpan  Chaturvedi and Tanvi Mehta
       NEW DELHI, June 19 (Reuters) - Indian authorities said
on Wednesday they were impounding a Som Group distillery and
temporarily suspending the plant's manufacturing licences after
the federal child rights agency found 59 children working at the
site illegally.
    Police launched an investigation into Som after the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) last week
found 39 boys and 20 girls working at the factory. The agency
also released photos of children's hands it said showed burns
due to contact with chemicals.
    "We have sent the police force to ensure there are no issues
during the sealing process," Vikas Kumar Shahwal, a senior
Madhya Pradesh police official, told Reuters. 
    The state government said in a separate order it was
temporarily suspending the plant's manufacturing licences and
had asked the labour department to investigate the matter.
    Som did not respond to a request for comment.
    In a statement to the stock exchange earlier this week, Som
Distilleries and Breweries Ltd  SDB.NS  said the issue was
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 checks.
    Their services have been terminated, Som said, adding it was
cooperating with the authorities. The company's shares have
fallen 7% this week.
    Some of the children found working at the distillery were
transported to the factory in school buses, NCPCR Chief Priyank
Kanoongo told Reuters on Wednesday.
    "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," Kanoongo said.
    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, Miral Fahmy
and Mark Potter)
 ((Arpan.Chaturvedi@thomsonreuters.com;))