Telangana will map its cotton farms and spinning mills as part of an effort to weed out child labor and slavery from fields and factories. Children are hired for seed production as their small hands are useful in cross pollination to produce hybrid seeds. Two children do the work of three adults but are paid less. Six of the ten cotton growing districts of Telangana will initially be mapped for labor violations under the project. It will also look at gender discrimination in salaries for agriculture workers and whether they have collective bargaining rights.

This is for the first time in India that an integrated approach to identify both child and bonded labor is being undertaken. India, the world’s second largest cotton producer after China, has child and forced labor in both cotton seed production as well as cotton growing. A 2014 study found that 2,00,000 children under 14 were working on cotton seed farms, double the number since 2010. However, the cotton supply chain is the hardest to track as the journey from field to retailers involves many stages - such as seed production, cotton growing, gins to separate seeds and fiber, spinning mills and garment factories.