Carpet Making Child Labor

Slavery and child labor in india s hand made carpet sector documents over 3 200 cases across nine states in india and found several hundred cases each of forced.

Carpet making child labor.

At age four he was put to work by his family to pay off their debts. In return iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt. But those of us who are fortunate enough to have been born and raised in a free western country such as america where child labor laws are in place and rigidly enforced may be totally unaware of the early age and the extent to which children in these countries are working at. Iqbal masih was born in 1983 in muridke a commercial city outside of lahore in punjab pakistan into a poor christian family.

Carpet manufacturers and the carpet export industry in pakistan as well as carpet importers and retailers in the usa and other western countries have announced that child labor no longer exists in the carpet weaving industry. Since its founding in 1988 the bllf has led the fight against bonded and child labor liberating 30 000 adults and children frequently entire families from brick kilns carpet factories and. Child labour in the industry the study also aims at mapping out supply chain linkages between indian carpet producers who use child labour and us importers who import carpets from these producers. The use of child labor in several countries where hand woven rugs and carpets are produced has been well documented.

The report tainted carpets. The uprising aggravated economic hardships making the money earned by working children even more important to many fami lies. Iqbal s family borrowed 600 rupees less than us 12 00 from a local employer who owned a carpet weaving business. 3 a study published by cepc in 1998 claims child labour account for only less than one present to the total workforce in carpet industry 0 93.