In a press conference held recently, Gul Kripalani, president of the association said that such reports were entirely false and the industry has not employed children nor are the workers, comprising largely women, being harassed by the employers or labour contractors.

Kripalani said that the industry was heavily dependent on these workers who are employed on a contract basis to clean, process and package the seafood bought from wholesale markets.

These workers are instead given free accommodation during their period of employment because they are highly being relied upon by the exporters to ensure timely processing of seafood.

A look at the wages of these women who largely come from Kerala and work on the coastal regions of various states (in this case, coastal Maharashtra), has much more to say about exploitation. Theseworkers earn a measly Rs 1,530 per month at the minimum level and they have to pay for the food.

The women workers largely fall in the age-group of 18-25 years and are hired on contract during the fishing season that lasts for about 8-9 months in a year.

They are then transported back home with a month's wage as compensation-- meaning these workers don't get paid for three months before the next season for fishing begins. And this is a low price to pay especially when the industry acknowledge that exporters rely heavily on them.

A delay by workers in packaging, or cleaning or storage of the seafood bought by exporters from wholesale markets can cause substantial losses to these exporters as the product decays and becomes unfit for exports.

Kripalani admitted that the industry has not looked into this aspect but said the association would ``look into the matter''.

Meanwhile, despite the European Union's ban on certain Indian suppliers seafood exports touched $387.37 million during the first fourmonths of the current financial year (April-July 98) against exports of $327.60 million in the previous year's comparable period, showing a 18 per cent rise.

For the month of July, exports increased from $77.22 million in July 97 to $115.59 million.