If you have bought hi-end carpets, possibility is that it was woven by a child. Indian carpet industry is tainted with slave child labour, which are made to work by force. According to a report, Tainted carpets: Slavery and Child Labour in India’s hand-made carpets, more than 3,200 cases of bonded labour and child labour are reported across the country are. Child labour is the demand of low price products and poverty. People need carpets at affordable prices due to which children are forced to work. Alternatively, being born in a poor family they are forced to work from small age. This proves to be profitable to banquet carpet manufacturers as they produce beautiful carpets by giving small wages to child labour.
Indian labour activist, Kailash Satyarthi, aimed at freeing the carpet industry of India, Nepal and Afghanistan from the abusive practices against child workers. His organization GoodWeave’s work was to perform extensive monitoring and auditing at every level from manufacturing to supply of the carpets. Since 1994, this organization is working towards this goal. The luxury bedroom carpets manufactured by the carpet industry comprise of a particular seal to promote anti-child labour.
Despite of rigorous scrutiny and monitoring, although the cases of child labour have dropped but not fully eradicated. Children from rural areas are the major target. Many big companies in foreign countries are importing carpets from India at cheap prices and selling them putting their brand name at higher prices. Thus, by raising awareness against child labour and promoting people to buy child labour-free products, the carpet industry can become clean from child labour.
