Forced labor in India's carpet industry

http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghabahree/2014/02/05/your-beautiful-indian-rug-was-probably-made-by-child-labor/

Megha Bahree has recently written an article for Forbes that condenses the information discussed in "Tainted Carpets," an in-depth report by Siddharth Kara of Harvard University's School of Public Health. 

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? 

Insurance for Women

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Women-make-up-less-than-a-third-of-insured-Indians/articleshow/31759775.cms)

As the title of this article suggests, women make up around thirty percent of all insured Indians. This number stems from perpetuated cultural values - that men should have all the financial decision-making power in Indian culture. As men tend to domineer over their wives and daughters, many of these women go without necessary insurance not necessarily because they cannot afford it, but because their husbands choose not to spend their money on their wives and daughters. However, women are experiencing a greater voice than ever before in these types of decisions. Working women in India, who are generally more autonomous over their money, have sharply increased the rates at which they are buying life insurance, a sign that is both encouraging to these companies as well as to the government. Women are not yet on equal footing with men, but this poverty and death can be alleviated through insurance purchases.

1. Is spending money on insurance a necessity for Indian citizens, and if so, what effect does this have on the economy and the uprising of the poor in India?
2. What are steps these companies can take to help foster a rise in the rates of women purchasing insurance for themselves?
3. What CST themes relate to this news and how can they be better upheld?

Fair trade in India

This article discusses how the government hopes that fair trade will help to alleviate some of India's economical problems. Recently there has been an alarming amount of farmer suicides due to the unreliable weather and abrupt rain storms. It seems that farmers have given up on the trade of farming all together and it is making a serious dent in India's agricultural business. The government hopes that by implementing fair trade they will be able to spark an interest back into the farming trade. They also hope to decrease the growing wealth gap between the rich and poor. All together India is taking a chance by using fair trade to strengthen the farming industry and stop a slew of economical issues.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/nov/21/india-fairtrade-rich-poor

Do you think fair trade will be effective for stopping farmer suicides?
What effect do you think fair trade will have on the economy?

Election Fever

India is getting ready to spend over five billion dollars on campaigning for elections next month. This will be the second largest total amount spent on an election in history. This spending is supposed to help the economy, which is in its largest slump in recent decades. But it will only be temporary as the money will increase the economic spending for now but soon it will go back down. Many people are worried that those who have the most money will win the election instead of those that are the best fit for the people. Also there is worry that fraud could be an issue. Most of the money will be put into Indian newspapers, which have been thriving, in recent years. There has been evidence of vote buying but that is often brushed off and to the world the elections seem fair and free choice. The only question is would all of this money be better spent in other areas instead of polling. Could these major political figures help out more if they spent some of the five billion dollars towards helping India and not themselves gain more power. Indian leaders regularly bribe voters with cash payouts and alcohol to gain their support. Recent state elections have seen innovations such as getting money to voters through new technology such as phones.

Do you think that this money spent for elections could be better spent in other areas to help the economy thrive in the longterm and not short term?

Do you feel that the world should take more action against India and the election fraud that goes on inside it?

Do you feel that corruption will be a big part of this election for India?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-set-to-challenge-US-for-election-spending-record/articleshow/31741588.cms

Ground Reality in Gujarat Different from what Politician Says

Ground Reality in Gujarat Different from what Politician Says

In Gujarat, Arvind Kejriwal, an AAP convener says that the current BJP leader, Narendra Modri, has lied about his promise to build 50,000 new homes for the poor in India. In fact, Kejriwal said that not even 50 homes have been built by the government of Gujarat in the last 11 years. Kejriwal also said corruption is running rampant in the Gujarati government and that this is not good for the people of the state. The Mining mafia, who recently murdered a young IPS officer, have not been put on trial yet after a few months. This goes to show how corrupt Indian politicians are, And how many of them create promises that they know they cannot keep. If India is going to change and help the poor, then the politicians need to change and start caring about the state of the Indian poor.

Discussion Questions:
What human rights are bing violated in this situation?

Will India's corrupt political system every change?

More Casualities in India's Naval Construction Industry

Once again, more were hurt and killed during the construction of a naval submarine in Visaisakhapatnam. When a hydraulic tank of the Arihant class was being tested, the lid of the tank fell off and fell on three civilian workers. One of them, 24 year old Amar, was killed instantaneously while Amzad Khan and Vishnu were seriously injured and immediately taken to a private hospital nearby. This accident is more than simply "an accident" since this has simply been one of the many accidents in the naval industry recently. Indeed, this incident on March 8 came a day after leakage of a deadly gas in an under-construction warship in Mumbai's Mazagon dock which claimed the life of a Navy Commander.  This is the 12th incident involving naval assets in service in the recent past or which are expected to join the Navy in near future. Ten days ago, two fire chiefs were killed in a mishap under water that caused fire and smoke and some months ago, 18 people were killed when the INS Sindhurakshak sank in Mumbai harbor. Clearly, the unsafe working conditions in India's growing industry is a problem that needs to be addressed.  

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/1-killed-2injured-in-accident-at-nuclear-submarine-under-construction-in-Visakhapatnam/articleshow/31686783.cms

1. What are some steps the Indian government can take to reduce the frequency of such accidents and make working safe?

2. Knowing that so much money around the globe goes to military spending, do you think that India should not even focus on naval constructions and invest in other things such as health and education? Why or Why not?

India Addresses Poverty Situation...Or not?

Finally! We've been learning about a lot of the problems in India but have yet to see many resolutions to the problems we inspect; however, it seems as though India is finally taking action against the immense poverty that wracks the nation. According to Any Madgavkar of The Economic Times, "India has had encouraging success in reducing extreme poverty: the official poverty rate has halved from 45% in 1994 to 22% in 2012. It's time to set the country's sights on a new horizon, helping as many as 580 million people build a more economically empowered life."

A research institute, McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), has recently developed an "Empowerment Line, a new measure of the consumption required for an average Indian to fulfill eight basic needs: food, energy, housing, drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, education, and social security." Madgavakar believes that extreme poverty can be eliminated by the year 2022 if India chooses to focus on job creation and higher productivity. This is a menacing task but the author believes that three tasks must be accomplished in order to eradicate the current poverty situation. First, "India needs to add another 115 million non-farm jobs over the next decade, with the manufacturing and construction sectors, along with labour-intensive services, such as tourism, forming the backbone. Second, India's farms need to double their rate of productivity growth rate in order to bring farm yields in line with those in other emerging Asian countries. And lastly, India needs to revamp the way it delivers basic services so that every rupee of increased public spending can go further."

Ideally, these should be manageable tasks for India; however, with the immense corruption within the government, can we really believe that this is in India's near future?


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/india-from-poverty-to-empowerment/articleshow/30705158.cms


Is India really up to the task of altering some of its foundational industries to ensure that each person is entitled to human dignity? Why or why not?


The fact that this situation is being addressed, however, is definitely a step in the right direction. Is this an "Westernization" of culture that is accompanying industrialization in modern-day India?