A major cause of the use of child labour is poverty: farmers receive such low prices for their produce that they can’t afford to pay hired workers. Even where farmers want their children to attend school, this is often hampered by poor availability of education in rural areas, and parents not being able to afford to buy schoolbooks or pay teachers.
It is natural for children to contribute to the household income by helping out on the family farm in appropriate work that doesn’t jeopardise their health or education. But Fairtrade standards prohibit children from being employed in illegal or harmful work. Regular audits are designed to detect instances of child labour and major breaches of Fairtrade standards on the worst forms of child labour can result in suspension of the producer group along with corrective actions to be taken to address the problem.