ALP PROGRESS UPDATE

FOCUSING ON
INDIA
3/2019

SOME HISTORY ON ALP
IMPLEMENTATION IN
INDIA

India

In 2013, the Agricultural Labor Practices(ALP) program was introduced in Vinukonda,
India following PMI’s regional rollout acrossAsia. For any company, implementing sucha program in an agricultural sector thatcomprises small farmers and temporary
workers is complex. Especially when existing
practices are based on cultural traditions
that may not necessarily conform to the ALP
standards or even the local laws. Multiple
challenges in enforcing country’s laws inthis sector also contribute to the current,
sometimes difficult labor conditions in thefarming communities.

When PMI’s supplier, Godfrey Phillips India(GPI), started in 2014 to communicate theALP code requirements to the farmers they
had to face and address these challenges.
GPI first introduced the collection of farm
profiles, including the demographics of thefarms and regular farm-by-farm monitoring,both performed by field technicians. In
the first year of the roll-out, the process –including the reports of non-conformance –required improvements to ensure it would
effectively depict the situation and issues
on the ground. It was decided at that timethat a more structured approach had to begiven to make the program more effective.
In 2015, GPI with PMI’s support started
implementing significant improvements tothe program by building, as a first step, aneffective governance structure consistingof the establishment of a dedicated ALP
country team and a steering committee
overseeing the roll-out. Additionally, GPI
enhanced the skills and capabilities of thefield technicians and increased their number.
These changes led to field technicians thatwere better equipped to communicateand train the farmers and workers on theirrights and obligations, more comprehensive
farm profile information and more accurate
visibility of the issues on the ground.
Knowing what the issues were led to better
designing of interventions in the farms withthe goal to meet the ALP standards.
This new sense of commitment fromthe field teams and the country steeringcommittee who guided and supported theirteams was key to achieving progress andmaking the difference during this transitionof the ALP program in India.
GPI considered the issues they uncovered
as an opportunity to initiate social
interventions to address the root causes
and engage with local stakeholders toultimately improve the labor conditions inthe farms. Through collaborations with PMI
and third-party NGOs, key initiatives wereselected and started in 2015, and havecontinued to expand ever since.

Since 2011, PMI has been implementing the Agricultural Labor
Practices (ALP) program to eliminate child labor and other laborabuses and to achieve safe and fair working conditions and a decent
livelihood for all farmers contracted to supply tobacco.

THE ALP PROGRAM COMPRISESFIVE ELEMENTS123
45

The ALP Code to be followed by over 350,000 farmers whom
we source tobacco from.

Training for PMI’s Leaf Sustainable Agriculture teams, suppliers,farmers, and workers about the Code and how to address any
gaps when applying it.
Internal monitoring by over 2,600 ﬁeld technicians, solving
problems and communicating PMI’s expectations during theirregular visits to farms.
External assessments by Control Union, a specialist supply
chain auditor, to independently evaluate the implementationof the ALP program.
Collaboration with civil society organizations, governments,
and the private sector on initiatives to address systemic issues.

TOBACCO FARMS IN INDIA - KEY DEMOGRAPHICSSTATUS IN 2018

Total IPS Farmers

People on the farmField Technician

Farm size(ha/farmer)

3,878

61,631

51-20% vs 201788% School-aged
children attending school

1.4

per76 Farmer
FT ratio

MenWomen

93% 7%

Adult

Children

92% 8%
Prompt Action Status

2017

Reported 134 Resolved 100%

2018

65 65

Safe working Environment

123 12300

Income & Work Hour0000

Forced Labor &Human Traﬁcking

0000Fair Treatment0069 69Child Labor14 14

ELIMINATING CHILD LABOR
THROUGH TARGETED INTERVENTIONSChild labor has been one of the key issues
that we had to address.

both school enrolment and attendance
improving.

In the Vinukonda area, the risk of childlabor in tobacco is mainly driven by lackof schools or poor-quality education inrural communities, lack of after-school
recreational activities, and farmers notunderstanding the risks of some tobaccorelated tasks. Since 2015, we partneredwith ASSIST, a leading local NGO, that
helped engage with the local communities
to initiate school rehabilitation and afterschool programs.

Talluri Paul, one of the parent-farmers from
Chalivendram, Vinukonda, whose child goesto school as a third grader, said that theimprovement in the school inspired his childto spend most of the school hours at school.
He also added that he was proud to have hischild in such a fine school (because of theimprovements).

The school rehabilitation program isintended to improve school facilities throughrepairs of school buildings, provision of safe
drinking water, establishment of separate
toilets for boys and girls, and provision ofbasic school-yard landscaping with simple
playgrounds for children. While they may
not be considered as sophisticated additions
to school premises, Teachers and parents
thought that the project was effective inattracting children to attend school, with80

40NO. OF PROMPT ACTIONSRAISED DURING FIELDTECHNICIANSMONITORING

69

Children below
18 in HazardousWork

2016
2017
2018

27
140

Prompt Actions
Prompt actions arise from situations where somebody on the farm may face arisk or a danger and immediate action is required. (e.g. Any incident of childrencarrying out age-inappropriate tasks or hazardous work is reported as a prompt
action and addressed immediately).

BEFOREBEFOREAFTER

AS OF 2018, A TOTAL OF 48 SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN
REHABILITATED, REACHING OVER 3,800 CHILDREN IN
THE TOBACCO GROWING COMMUNITIES.

Grop Year

No. of Schools

No. of Children

2016

15

1,637

2017

9709

2018

10708

2019

14509

Total

48

3,818

AFTER

To complement this initiative and address
the risks of children engaging in hazardous
tobacco tasks (mainly harvesting andtobacco handling) after their classes, wealso introduced after-school recreational andlearning activities in most of the rehabilitatedschools. These additional after-school
activities contributed to improving children’senrollment and attendance. GPI’s monitoring(which includes unannounced visits), showed
no incidences of child labor in the areas whereafter-school activities were introduced. As of
2019, there were 35 schools providing afterschool programs reaching a total of 3,684
children of which 2,329 (63%) are children of
tobacco farmers and tobacco workers.

CHILDREN’S ATTENDANCE RATES IN SCHOOL
During after-school program

100%
Before after-school program

95%

2018
2017

90%
85%
80%
75%
JunJulyAug

SepOctNovDec

JanFebSource: ASSIST (School attendance records)

2017

2018

Comparing the attendance rates before and during
the after-school activities, school records in 2017 and2018 show an increase in children’s attendance toschools for the months of January and February, thepeak of tobacco season when the risk of child labor isthe highest.

In 2018, an external assessment, conductedby Control Union in Vinukonda, confirmed theprogress made so far to address child labor.
It showed a 95% awareness of the standards
related to child labor among farmers, 57%
among workers and 64% among farmers’
family members. There was also no evidence
found of children below 18 years of age being
employed or helping with any tobacco workat their family farm for all 63 farms visited
during the assessment.
Despite the positive results of theassessment, GPI is committed to continuously
improving the farm-by-farm monitoring andfield technicians’ skills to identify and help
address potential child labor incidences. GPI
has also introduced a stricter consequence
management approach, including nonrenewal of farming contracts in cases ofrecurrent issues on child labor found in farms;
however, to date, there have not been any
recurrent child labor issues.
Looking ahead, in 2020, we plan to expand therehabilitation program to cover at least 12
more schools. In parallel, GPI will introduce“Kids’ Day” sessions (Involving entertaining
activities and role plays) in additional villages
to further raise awareness of child labor andthe risks related to tobacco growing to bothchildren and their parents.

“Control Union asked farmers,family members and workers what
had changed on their farms since
the start of the ALP Program. The
general feeling was that the numberof children working in tobacco
production had decreased andthat work safety had increased.
Furthermore, it was reported thatthe relationship between farmers
and workers had improved in
the entire region throughout thelast years, parallel to the ALP
implementation.”
Excerpt from Control Union
Assessment Report, 2018

IMPROVING SAFE WORKING
CONDITIONS IN THE FARMS
There is no doubt that maintaining safe
working conditions in the farms is one of
the key challenges that GPI has faced since
the beginning of the ALP roll-out. This is due
to farmers’ lack of awareness of basic farm
safety practices, and the notion that safety is
not a priority given the low reported numberof accidents or injuries in the farms. Since
2012, the supplier has provided locked
storage for farm chemicals to their farmers.
In the succeeding years, complete PersonalProtective Equipment (PPE) kits have also
been provided to farmers and workers toensure safety during crop protection agents(CPA) application and to prevent Green
Tobacco Sickness (GTS). Awareness raisingtrainings on proper usage of protective
equipment are regularly conducted with bothfarmers and workers, including the provisionof manuals.

In addition to protective equipment and CPA
storage, that prevent workers and farmers
against exposure to chemicals and green
tobacco sickness, first-aid kits were also
distributed to farmer clusters in 2017. This
is to ensure access to basic first-aid in case ofminor injuries that occur on the field.
In line with PMI’s step change commitments,
GPI will continue working on improving its
strategies to address the root causes of
unsafe farming practices and ensure thatall people working on the farms are trained
and have access to relevant equipment.
In addition to the provision of protective
equipment, GPI will enhance monitoring
to ensure the workers’ effective usage ofappropriate equipment. In case of recurring
non-conformances to this requirement, GPI
will apply a consequence of the non-renewalof contracts to farmers.

“Awareness about Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) among
farmers was high and complete sets of protective equipment
were worn by all workers at 95% of the farms visited byControl Union. Farmers were happy that GPI had provided
the sets and mentioned that, before the training from GPI,
they had not been aware of the hazards of GTS.”
Excerpt from Control Union Assessment Report, 2018

ENGAGING WORKERS THROUGH AN
EFFECTIVE GRIEVANCE MECHANISM
As workers and farmers are placed at thecore of the ALP program, it was necessary
to provide them with access to a grievancemechanism where workers and farmers could
raise concerns and seek help. Given that inIndia there was no existing mechanism thatcould support tobacco communities to resolve
labor disputes or conflicts, GPI and PMI
decided to establish a grievance mechanism
model. We started in 2016 by conducting abaseline study to identify an implementing
partner and better understand the challengesof this undertaking. In 2017, with the supportof ASSIST, we built a local grievance body,called “Racha Banda,” or “Informal DisputeRedressal” (IDR). This body is composed ofvolunteer local leaders, farmers, as well asworkers assigned to resolve issues raisedby either workers or farmers. We started byconducting pilot grievance mechanisms inthree villages covering 276 farmers and 346

workers. The strategy was to rely on a seriesof community activities, including street plays
in order to raise awareness about these newly
created mechanisms and their purpose.
PMI had regular consultations with thedispute redressal body to help ensure thatall grievances are properly documented,resolved, and followed up to ensure theclosure of issues. At the end of the crop
season in 2017, there were 21 labor related
issues and conflicts brought to the IDR with
76% coming from women workers. Issues
reported include, among others, delayed
payments, inadequate working conditions
and safety issues. The fact that workers andfarmers trust the IDR body and seek support,
is a testament that this local grievancemechanism works and adds value to thecommunities.

This structure has since expanded to a totalof 20 villages and resolved a total of 71
disputes between farmers and workers. The
IDR committees in the villages continue tofunction through regular meetings, under
the NGO’s supervision.

This initiative will continue to ensure thatworkers, especially women workers, aregiven an opportunity to raise their grievances
as well as being members of the IDR bodycontributing in the dispute resolution among
farmers and workers.

Change image for a relevant one

ENHANCING COMMUNITIES’ WELLBEING

To generate a more holistic impact in thetobacco growing areas, the initiatives
undertaken to address labor issues wereintegrated into relevant programs in thecommunities. These initiatives cater topeople’s specific needs, whether for theirhousehold use, simple infrastructures that
aid in their farming, or health-related services
that are lacking in the villages.
Among the key initiatives, there was theinstallation of 22 water treatment stations
providing drinking water to 22 villages with
1,400 farmers and over 35,000 people. Fivecheck dams were also built in areas prone
to drought enabling farmers to grow theircrops (not only tobacco) even during drier
years. A total of 112 medical camps have been
conducted, reaching over 2,400 farmers.
GPI clearly understand that these types ofcontributions are important to the farming
communities. The objective is of course tosupport farmers to align their practices withthe ALP guidelines and achieve sustainable
farming production, while in parallel finding
more opportunities to improve farmers’,
workers’ and communities’ livelihoods.

“The number of projects undertaken
by GPI showed that the company
considered ALP not only as a PMI
requirement for Burley farmers,
but also as an opportunity toimprove general living conditionsin the region. Considering that
local communities in India tend tobe very closed to outsiders, the CU
auditors from India, in particular,
were impressed by the good
relationship between farmers andfield technicians…”
Excerpt from Control UnionAssessment Report, 2018

MOVING TOWARDS A STEP CHANGE
While significant progress has been madeparticularly in addressing child labor andensuring a safe working environment, someissues persist. Based on GPI’s internalmonitoring, field technicians still report nonusage of PPE among workers and a few casesof children working in the farms. However, ourbiggest challenge is to ensure that workers
are paid at least the minimum wage.
Based on GPI’s internal monitoring and theControl Union assessment, it was reported
that several farmers were not paying theminimum wage, especially when the work wastask-based. In addition, women workers werealso found to be particularly impacted giventhat they were often paid lower than men forthe same type of work, which constitutes alsoa violation of the ALP Code.
The non-payment of minimum wage isparticularly complex given that it is an issue ofthe whole agricultural sector in India, applying
not only to tobacco, but also to other crops.
The practice is that farmers and workers
agree in advance of the season on a fee which
is often lower than the legal minimum wage.
In order to address this, GPI analyzed the root
causes and drivers of the issue based on theirfarm monitoring, they mapped the different
payment practices across different growing
areas and identified a set of potential actions
that will be tested in one village. Bearing in
mind the sensitivity of the issue, and thepossible consequences to other crops, GPI

will carefully implement the corrective actions
and ultimately ensure sustainable solutions
for the benefit of both farmers and workers.
The pilot is planned to start in the next crop
season in 2020.

persistent issues that keep surfacing over
the years, and ensure that farmers reach full

conformance to ALP standards and ultimately
achieve the Step Change global targets.

In addition to the above-mentioned pilot,
GPI plans to establish later this year selfhelp groups to empower women in thecommunities to contribute to households’
overall income. Additionally, these groups
will have to improve skills of all women
working on farms, including the tobacco
farmers’ wives. This will be achieved throughcapacity building, financial and livelihoodtrainings, and establishment of self-helpgroups’ connections to existing governmental
programs and micro-business initiatives.
Given the above challenges, GPI isundertaking a critical review of the overall
implementation of the ALP program including
the current initiatives, governance, fieldtechnicians’ performance and remediation
strategies. In addition, GPI introduced
enhanced consequence management and precontracting due diligence for the next crop
season, aiming to only continue contracting
farmers who have demonstrated compliancewith the standards or consistent effort toreach them. External verification will also
be introduced in 2020, as a follow-up to theControl Union assessment, to further examine
the effectiveness of the ALP implementation
and relevant interventions. This integrated
approach aims to sustainably address theWe welcome your feedback. If you have comments or suggestions,please contact sustainability@pmi.com
Or visit www.pmi.com/sustainability to find out more.

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