The handmade woolen carpet industry is extremely labor intensive and one of the largest export earners for India, Pakistan, Nepal and Morocco. During the past 20 years, it has been one of the fastest growing industries and most of this growth has been achieved through the use of child labor: “children work long hours for very little pay. Indeed, in many cases [...], they may receive no pay whatsoever”. The total number of children involved in the industry in South Asia is very difficult to assess, but in India the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude estimates that between 200,000 and 300,000 children are involved, most of them in the carpet belt of Uttar Pradesh in central India. Similar numbers may be working in Pakistan and up to 150,000 in Nepal. For years the industry claimed in its propaganda that the nimble fingers of children are essential to form the intricate designs used in the carpets.
There are two main advantages of child labor to the carpet makers:
their very low wages and their docile acceptance of terrible working conditions;
their good eyesight, which allows them to perform intricate work in very poor light.
As a result, many of the children, who may begin working as young as 6 or 7 years old, are severely ill by the time they are adults.
Are there any successes?
Pakistan has recently passed laws greatly limiting child labor and indentured servitude—but those laws are universally ignored, and some 11 milion children, aged four to fourteen, keep that country's factories operating, often working in brutal and squalid conditions. The Anti-Slavery Society believes that the positive moves made by some manufacturers in India must be reinforced by purchasers in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand like you. If exporters who have stopped using child labor are perceived as having a marketing advantage over those who use child labor, then these other exporters will certainly follow — initially in India, and then in other countries.
How you can help?
When you buy carpets check for the rugmark label. The ‘Rugmark’ label on hand-knotted carpets from India indicates that they have not been produced by child labor.
The conditions for use of the Rugmark are that the exporters undertake:
not use child labor in any area of production; and
to pay all workers at least the minimum wage as set by Indian law.
It also requires regular school attendance by children working at home on family looms. The exporter will then be given the right to put a label on their carpets, which will carry a code enabling purchasers to check each carpet with the Foundation. Spot checks will be carried out on all looms registered with the Foundation to ensure they continue to operate without illegal child labor. To date, 100 manufacturers in India and a few suppliers in Nepàl have applied for registration
