European Commission Grant Call to eliminate Child Labour and Forced Labour in India

Deadline: 10-May-24

The European Commission has launched the calls for proposals to prevent and eliminate child labour and forced labour in India, including through responsible business practices in European supply chains.

It also takes into account the analyses and priorities set by the EU Human Rights and Democracy Country Strategy (HRDCS) for India 2021-2024 and the EU Gender Action Plan (GAPIII) country implementation plan (CLIP) for India (2021-2025). The recent EU legislation on Human Rights & Environment Due Diligence (HREDD) in business supply chains also makes it mandatory to ensure that the lowest tier of the supply chains in producer countries, in this case India, complies with necessary labour and human rights standards.

Objectives 

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to combat forced labour, child labour and unacceptable forms of work in all segments of the supply chain, in particular in the lower tiers, and to promote government and corporate accountability on business and human rights.
• The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:
  • To promote responsible business practices and human rights due diligence in India, with particular emphasis on European supply chains.
  • To build capacities of relevant stakeholders, including CSOs, public and private sector actors in the effective implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs)  on Business & Human Rights (BHR), related EU legislations on human rights and environmental due diligence, and related ILO Conventions and local legislations.
  • To support multi-stakeholder engagement and collaboration at local, national and global levels to promote human rights due diligence in European supply chains.
  • To strengthen capacities of civil society actors, workers and their organisations in the protection of human rights including labour rights, in the enforcement of the necessary mitigation measures to fight it, and in the promotion of decent work and meaningful and efficient participation in social dialogue.
  • To facilitate access to remedies, including in cases of corporate human rights violations and abuses and engage in collective redress.

Priorities

• The priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • Giving a voice to, help provide access to remedies, and empower victims of corporate human rights violations, especially those living in the most vulnerable situations (women, youth, children at work, people living with disabilities and indigenous peoples).
  • Using a bottom-up approach and that are policy-driven. On the one hand, this requires activities that are conducted by CSOs with long-standing presence and involvement in impacted local settings to ensure effective stakeholder participation in broad human rights due diligence (HRDD) processes. On the other hand, this requires outreach activities to promote dialogue with and access to governmental actors and concerned corporate actors to inform the effective implementation of HRDD measures.
  • Tackling the informal economy and seeking to address and prevent abusive and fraudulent labour practices against vulnerable groups (migrant workers or workers from ethnic minorities, workers suffering disabilities, women workers, young workers and home-based workers).
  • Enabling workers, trade unions and workers’ associations to take part in an efficient and meaningful way in social dialogue with the government and the employers on issues linked to human and labour rights.
  • Strengthening legal frameworks and policies to better protect workers and prevent forced/child labour but also that encourage partnerships between workers’ organisations, civil society groups, and companies to promote responsible business practices and reduce the risk of forced/child labour in supply chains.
  • Collecting and analysing data (disaggregated by sex, age, and disability) on the prevalence of forced/child labour and the effectiveness of interventions to combat it.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 2 670 000.
• EUR 2 370 000 to be financed under 2023 budget and indicatively EUR 300 000 to be financed under 2024 budget, subject to the availability of the appropriations provided for in the general budget of the Union for 2024. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• Size of grants
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • Minimum amount: EUR 750 000.00
    • Maximum amount: EUR 1 335 000.00
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum percentages of total eligible costs of the action:
    • Minimum percentage: 50% of the total eligible costs of the action.
    • Maximum percentage: 95% of the total eligible costs of the action.
  • The balance (i.e. the difference between the total cost of the action and the amount requested from the contracting authority) must be financed from sources other than the general budget of the Union or the European Development Fund.
• The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 36 months nor exceed 60 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person  and
    • be non-profit-making; and
    • be a non-governmental civil society organisation (CSO)  and/or their associations and/or international platforms and
    • be established in  any country and
    • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary and
    • A lead applicant established outside India must act with minimum of two Indian co-applicants or affiliated entities.
    • Such Indian co-applicants or affiliated entities must be registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), and must have a valid FCRA registration at the time of full application and at the time of the signature of the contract.
    • A lead applicant established in India may act individually or with co-applicants or affiliated entities, subject to the following condition:
      • The Indian lead applicant must be registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), and must have a valid FCRA registration at the time of full application and at the time of the signature of the contract. This does not necessarily apply to co-applicants or affiliated entities.
• Co-applicant(s)
  • Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator).

For more information, visit European Commission.