bemoreeco

Should you still be shopping at Primark? That’s the question reverberating around women-kind this week following a child-labour scandal. The truth is, Primark were not directly involved in employing these child-labour, rather three of their suppliers sub-contracted work which eventually filtered down to individuals employing children in the slums of India.

This story isn’t entirely new. Almost a month ago Channel 4 pulled their “The Devil Wears Primark” exposé at the last moment. The best report of the Primark scandal is Dan McDougall’s astonishing piece in yesterday’s Observer.

See the BBC Panorama preview below for a great overview of the story.

Perhaps the biggest ethical dilemma here is that we all know child labour is wrong. The problem is that for many families the money their children earn from this labour is what pays for food. However, this certainly isn’t a redeemable argument Primark can adopt. Child labour IS wrong and they have a social responsiblity to thoroughly examine their supply chains right down to people making their clothes, and even where they get their material from.