Side Event - Leveraging Public Procurement to realise the Rights of Women and Children in Supply Chains

About this event

BACKGROUND

Globally public procurement represents on average 13% to 20% of GDP. As eper the zero draft of Indian NAP it accounts for more than 25% in India's GDP. The Government of India has time and again committed to ensuring responsibility and accountability to bring efficiency and transparency in matters relating to public procurement of goods and services. The Government is, in the case of Public Procurement, is a buyer. Given the volume of procurement, the buyer could demand from businesses their compliance with UNGP as well as all human rights and ILO conventions, even though the State as government has not ratified the convention or made laws to make the provisions justifiable. The Government as a public procurer should aim to be one step ahead of the Government as law-maker.

Identical to that of model employer concept, the state could become model procurer, setting standards even higher than the international buyers. For example, in the garment industry, there are clearly two supply-chains - one for international trade and another for domestic market. It is often stated that the international buyers organise regular due diligence in the supply chain- owing to which there is lesser human rights violations such as child labour and bonded labour and such other practices. The international buyer dictates compliance not through any regulatory power, but because of the volume the buyer procures. Similarly, the Governments in India procure a huge volume of garment products from uniform for police, defence forces, hospital staff, PSU factory workers to school uniform for children under Right to Education law. The Government can very well influence the garment industry if it specifies procurement guidelines that seek disclosure and compliance of not only existing laws, but also such globally recognised conventions.

There is a huge potential to capitalise on the buying capacities of the public sector to influence the human rights compliance in the supply chains.

SESSION DESCRIPTION

This session will bring in first hand voices to understand the challenges faced from thes lens of gender and child rights in the garment sector supply chains. Some of the domain experts will look at these challenges from the lens of equity based budgeting, ensuring gender equality and trade union engagement to influence the public procurement practices. The overall learnings from the session will be used to set some key advocacy points for influencing the NAP development processes in India with particular focus on public procurement.

SESSION OBJECTIVES

1. Discuss the challenges faced by workers and their families in garment supply chain

2. Identify key advocacy points for influencing the NAP development processes with key focus on public procurement

QUESTIONS

1. What are some of the key challenges faced by workers from gender and child rights perspective?

2. What scope is there from a policy planning perspective to incorporate human rights compliance into public procurement?

3. What are the key demands which need to be incorporated in the NAP for ensuring human rights compliant public procurement?

SPEAKERS + MODERATORS

Speakers: M Gomathi Subha (Mill Worker), Rajeshwari, (Mill Welfare Office worker), Mill Worker (TBC), Durga Devi (Student), Sonu (Student), and Pradeep Narayanan (Partners in Change Tom Thomas, Corporate Responsibility Watch).

Discussants: Malathi Chittibabu (Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)), Dr Harpreet Kaur (BHR Specialist, UNDP), and Pooja Parvati (Country Manager, International Budget Partnership).

Moderator: Dheeraj, Praxis