Kara assembled a team of eight researchers who traveled to India to gather information about child labor/forced labor in the carpet-weaving industry. First they found that much of the facilities, after being put under scrutiny, had relocated from southeast Uttar Pradesh to a few hundred kilometers away around the area of Shahjahanpur, Badaun, and Hardoi, now dubbed the "carpet belt." They found overwhelming evidence of inhumane conditions, stating "an astonishing level of outright slavery and child labor for carpet weaving appears to be all but the norm in the region in and around this new carpet belt." For some numbers, they found that a minimum of 45% of all workers in India's carpet industry suffer from forced labor under Indian law, 28% are in bonded labor, and 20% are child laborers. India's carpet sector employs roughly two million people and Kara estimates that 900,000 are forced laborers and 400,000 are child workers, as young as five and six. One of the most interesting parts of Kara's report are companies' responses to these allegations. Companies like Ikea, Target, Macy's, and Crate and Barrel source their hand-made rugs from India. All of the companies expressed concern over the findings, but say that they a strong commitment to ethical conditions and have continuous auditing occurring in India that doesn't show evidence of the conditions Kara mentions.
Questions
1. Why do you think there is a discrepancy between the finding of these companies' audits and Kara's report? Considering the extensive production process of hand-made carpets, do you think it's possible to confirm that a certain carpet was made without forced/child labor?
2. What are some possible steps India can take to reduce child labor? What can we do as consumers?
An example of a step that can be taken to reduce labor is to take strict action in enforcing the illegality of child labor. People need to understand that they cannot mistreat the human dignity of these innocent children, and they must be respected in the same way as any other human being. It will be hard to completely abolish child labor in India, but by first changing the attitudes that people possess regarding the labor of children will change be allowed to happen in the country of India. As consumers, we can be weary of the brands we buy from and lobby against them by not purchasing from them if they do indeed use child labor during production.
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