India’s handmade carpet industry has been exploiting people for decades, with no repercussions for the brazen use of child labor to produce the country’s number one export. So what’s being done to put a stop to these cruel and inhumane practices? 

Sugarcane, tobacco, cocoa, and clothing are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to industries in which children are being exploited for their labor. And although many of these sectors have been on the radar for quite some time, there may be one that surprises you. Those beautiful, handmade rugs from India that you’ve been pinning like crazy to your living room decor board have also been an unfortunate part of that list of tainted goods. With knowledge of such abuse dating as far back as the early 1990s, it has been difficult to reform largely in part because India is the world’s largest exporter of hand crafted rugs.

In case you’re not fully familiar with what child labor means or entails, the International Labor Organization defines it as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” Furthermore, “in its most extreme forms, child labor involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age.” Sadly, this has become the picture of the handmade carpet industry in India.

According to The Harvard Crimson, in 2014, a report deemed “the largest ever first-hand investigation into slavery and child labor in India’s handmade carpet sector” was released by Harvard University’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. Its author, Siddarth Kara, who is an adjunct lecturer on public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School as well as a fellow with the FXB Center, sent out a team of anonymous researchers into suspected regions in order to uncover the abuse directly, thereby refuting various claims that child labor, including slavery and child abuse, had been resolved in this particular industry.  

In the report, the allegations were at once appalling and eye-opening. Over 3,200 cases of various forms of child abuse, child labor, and slavery were documented beyond the customary “Carpet Belt” and into nine other states across northern India. The researchers were also able to trace the tainted carpets from the point of manufacture to the point of sale in the United States.

Although this doesn’t begin to scratch the surface so much as it does to summarize it, the team uncovered the following conditions along the way:

• Workers started as young as 8-years-old.

• The average work day was found to be 10 to 12 hours, six to seven days a week.

• There were 1,406 cases of child labor found, with an estimated 20 percent industry prevalence.

• There were 2,010 cases of bonded labor (a pledge of labor in exchange for security of repayment of debt or other obligation), with an estimated 28 percent industry prevalence.

• Some 286 cases of human trafficking were uncovered, with an estimated 4 percent industry prevalence.

• As many as 2,675 cases were discovered in hand-knotted carpet production, and 540 cases in the hand-tufted sector.

• Not surprisingly, 80 percent of loans in bonded labor cases were taken for basic consumption.

• In addition to the above findings, a “New Carpet Belt” of child labor, human trafficking, and “numerous cases of children being bought and sold into outright slavery” were also uncovered.

Many times, the conditions in which these children are forced to work are so destitute, that they have been described as subhuman. Per The Harvard Crimson: “Factories and shacks were cramped, filthy, unbearably hot…filled with stagnant and dust-filled air, and contaminated with grime and mold. Some sites were so filthy, pungent, and dangerous that the researchers were afraid to enter due to the risk to their safety.” Desperate, alone, and afraid, these children are exposed time and time again to the deep, dark, depths of inhumanity with no hope in sight.

Aside from awareness, which Kara and his team have so excellently raised, what else can be done to remedy the atrocities from India’s the handmade rug industry?

Conscientiousness is of the utmost importance, and education on the issues from other resources is essential before potentially spending your money on an item that directly contributes to the abuse and exploitation of minors. GoodWeave, a nonprofit organization that aims to “stop child labor in the carpet industry and to replicate its market-based approach in other sectors” is a great place to start. It offers current statistics, ways to campaign, updates on progress, and resources on where to purchase GoodWeave certified rugs that are guaranteed to be child labor-free.

It will take more than just a village to really abolish such abuses. Every purchase counts, so remember make yours meaningful.

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Image of Children’s Hands via Shutterstock

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Column Chocolate is a guilty pleasure in more ways than one.

For most people, chocolate evokes positive associations: indulgence, childhood, Valentine’s Day. But in Western Africa, the connotations are far less positive. There, an estimated 1.8 million child laborers work tirelessly to produce the cocoa that goes into our Easter bunny chocolates.

The ills of the cocoa industry first entered the public eye in the early 2000s, after a BBC documentary called “Slavery: A Global Investigation” highlighted the child labor and slavery abuses occurring on West African cocoa farms. According to the International Labor Rights Forum, child workers in the cocoa industry typically “labor for long, punishing hours, using dangerous tools and facing frequent exposure to dangerous pesticides as they travel great distances in the grueling heat.” In addition, those working as slaves “suffer frequent beatings and other cruel treatment.”

The Good

The BBC documentary sparked a loud, though short-lived, public outcry. Soon after it was released, U.S. House Representative Eliot Engel and Senator Tom Harkin sponsored the Harkin-Engel Protocol, a public-private agreement to eliminate the “worst forms of child labor” (as defined by the International Labour Organization) in the growth and processing of cocoa in the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where nearly 75 percent of the world’s cocoa supply is grown. Signed in September 2001, the agreement, better known as the Cocoa Protocol, outlined six actions, each with specific deadlines.

• Public statement of the need for and terms of an action plan.
• Formation of multi-sectoral advisory groups. (By December 1, 2001)  
• Signed joint statement on child labor to be witnessed at the ILO. (By December 1, 2001)
• Memorandum of cooperation. (By May 1, 2002)
• Establish a joint foundation. (By July 1, 2002)
• Building toward credible standards. (By July 1, 2005)

The agreement was signed by multiple stakeholders, from the heads of the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and World Cocoa Foundation, to the coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition, to the presidents of the world’s top eight chocolate manufacturers at the time. It was a significant commitment to ending child labor in the cocoa industry, from the people in positions to effect that change.

The Bad

The Cocoa Protocol was first lauded as a success, but its long-term results have been less than impressive. By the first protocol deadline in 2005, the industry had still failed to implement an industry-wide certification program. An amendment gave the stakeholders three more years, but by 2008, the objectives were still not met. In 2010, the parties signed yet another document – commonly referred to as the 2010 Joint Declaration – that reaffirmed their commitment and added the goal of reducing the worst forms of child labor by 70 percent by 2020.

It’s evident that the Cocoa Protocol still has a long way to go. A 2011 report from the Tulane University Payson Center revealed that about 1.8 million children continue to work in cocoa agriculture in the Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana alone. In the Côte d’Ivoire, about five percent work for pay, and in Ghana, about 10 percent do. In the 12 years since the Cocoa Protocol was signed, only about five percent of child laborers have been exposed to its related initiatives.

In early 2012, the issue was again brought to the public eye thanks to a CNN Freedom Project documentary called Chocolate’s Child Slaves. While exploring cocoa farms in the Côte d’Ivoire,  filmmakers found that not only were child labor and slavery still very prevalent, but many of the employers they encountered hadn’t even been informed of the need to change their practices.

So What Now?

Educate yourself further.

This column just scratches the surface of the abuses and ills of the cocoa industry. To learn more, I recommend watching Mika Mistrati and U. Roberto Romano’s 2010 documentary, “The Dark Side of Chocolate,” and checking out the “Chocolate’s Child Slaves” content from the CNN Freedom Project.

Sign the petition.

Oxfam recently launched a “Women and Chocolate” petition as part of its larger “Behind the Brands” campaign, which seeks to change the way big brands do business. The petition calls on the top three chocolate manufacturers — Nestle, Mars, and Mondelez International (formerly Kraft) — to reduce gender inequality in their industry. While a separate issue from child labor, it’s still an important one.

Indulge responsibly.

Relax — no one is asking you to boycott chocolate now that you know its darker side. But you might want to consider switching your loyalties to Fair Trade brands that work directly with certified slave-free cocoa producers. And beware of Fair Trade brands that are actually owned by troublesome corporations, like Green & Blacks, owned by Mondelez, or Dagoba, owned by Hershey. My personal Fair Trade favorites are Equal Exchange, Kopali Organics, and Divine Chocolate.

Images: Kirti Poddar, Peter DiCampo/Oxfam America, Clive Dara

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How a film about children sold into slavery reveals the plight of those working daily to restore broken lives.

“I realize what I’m doing is just a ripple in the larger scheme of things,” says filmmaker Jody Hassett Sanchez, who is traveling the world to promote her documentary Sold. The film is a horrific yet hopeful window into adults who sell and traffic children and the modern day abolitionists  risking life and limb to end the $27 billion-a-year industry.

A ripple perhaps, but the small film is leaving audiences devastated in its wake at screenings across the globe, from formal showings to the British Parliament to warm meet and greets at St. Luke Presbyterian Church in San Rafael. It poses the question: Can one person make a difference when it comes to ending child slavery today? Three inspirational activists including a Hindu in India, a Christian in Africa and a Muslim in Pakistan are each doing their part to combat the buying and selling of humans, which has flourished under globalization. We see what they are up against in the harshest of settings where blood is not always thicker than water when faced with starvation.

Desperate parents must make a Sophie’s Choice of sorts in allowing a trader in their village to whisk away one of their children with the promise of a reunion in four years or so. The parents are reassured the children will be treated well, a delusional bargain at best.

In reality, boys as young as three have been ripped from their homes in Pakistan and sold to the UAE as camel jockeys for sport and entertainment. Fed water and crackers to stay underweight, the boys have suffered permanent genitalia damage when strapped on the camels and forced to ride 14 hours a day on desert racetracks.

But because of the political and diplomatic rescue efforts of attorney Ansar Burney in Karachi, the Saudis have enacted new laws to outlaw the brutal practice pledging to only use riders age 18 or over. Burney is one of three abolitionists starring as the main characters of the film and emerges a hero as he reunites the boys with their families and to repair their broken spirits.

“I’m not sure if they can be totally restored because of what they have been through and the idea of therapy is a western notion,” says Sanchez about what happens to these children once returned to schooling or household duties back home. “But there is a feeling of hopefulness and they do receive a great deal of love from the people around them.”

It seems no one is more loving than former Hindu nun Dr. Sunitha Krishman, a social activist and co-founder of Prajwala, an institution rescuing trafficked women and girls and helping them find shelter.  She organizes brothel raids and oversees 17 schools for young girls she rescues from forced prostitution in India. The film has us cringing when describing how the youngest virgins reap the highest prices. Krishman evokes the image of Mother Teresa as she embraces the girls who are given new identities and a fresh start. The brave crusader admits she has been shot at several times and is deaf in one year from the violence inflicted by traffickers.

And in rural Togo, Symphorienne Kessouagni gently helps to re-socialize and educate former slave children. Most tell the story of their parents sending them away to live with distant relatives only to end up in the hands of brokers who smuggled them across the border to do heavy labor, doing work even strong adults would find grueling.

The film is clearly faith-based, relying on religion as a healer and unifier as witnessed in the first Abolition Movement and throughout history. What’s missing from the film is the exposure of the sinister elements, ambush interviews with brokers or underground footage of rich Saudis delighting in child jockeys. Sanchez, a former ABC News producer, explains she made the deliberate choice to omit the “other side to the story,” arguing it wouldn’t add a thing.

“This is not another movie about what is wrong in the world but one that focuses on those who are making a difference trying to solve the problems,” she says. “We want our audiences to be outraged that there is more slavery than ever before in history, but we also want them to move from anger to action.”

Images: Emirates 24/7: Hyderabad Burpp; Jodyhassettsanchez; Ansar Burney

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