I. Overview

India has the largest number of urban and rural child workers in the world.¹ The Government of India acknowledges at least 17.5 million working children.² Estimates by various organizations range from 44 million³ to over 100 million child workers.⁴

The exact number of child workers in India's export industry is not known. Major export industries which utilize child labor include hand-knotted carpets, gemstone polishing, brass and base metal articles, glass and glassware, footwear, textiles and silk, and fireworks. Children are also exploited as bonded laborers, particularly in the carpet industry.

Other industries in India alleged to use child labor are: locks; leather; pottery; granite, mica, slate mining and quarrying; auto parts and accessories; cashew processing; coir (coconut fiber) products; iron and steel products; wood, rattan, and walnut furniture; suitcases and trunks; sports goods; garments; tile; and shrimp and seafood processing. Further research is required to determine the nature and extent of child labor in these industries, as well as their link to export markets. Some of these industries, such as pottery and locks, probably produce solely for the domestic market.

II. Child Labor in Export Industries

Hand-Knotted Carpets

Hand-knotted carpets are exported in large quantity from India to the United States and Germany. In 1993, India exported more than $170 million worth of carpets to the United States.⁵ Although there are weaving centers scattered throughout India, the largest centers are located in the "carpet belt" of Uttar Pradesh. Carpets are also produced in the Jammu-Kashmir region, as well as outside Jaipur in Rajasthan.⁶

The South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS) estimates that there are approximately 300,000 children working in the industry.⁷ In 1992, the American Embassy in New Delhi noted that estimates of children in the carpet industry range from 300,000 to 400,000.⁸

Children work in almost every stage of carpet-making. In a comprehensive May 1994 report on child labor in India, the International Labor Rights Education and Research Fund (ILRERF) asserts that children's tasks include sorting, knotting, cutting, washing, and dyeing.⁹ They also rear sheep, roll yarn into balls, string the looms, and weave and bind carpets.¹⁰ Often children begin work at six or eight years old as unpaid "apprentices."¹¹

Child carpet weavers typically fall into four categories: unpaid children working on family looms, unpaid children working with adult family wage earners, unpaid apprentices (for approximately one year), and wage earners.¹² A 1992 survey conducted for the Government of India by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) estimated that 8 percent of the total work force in the hand-knotted carpet industry is child labor.¹³ A 1993 report published by the International Labor Organization estimates that the ration of adult to child workers in the carpet industry of Mirzapur-Bhadohi is 1:2.254.¹⁴ Of the 500 carpet children surveyed by the NCAER, the average daily wage was 12.20 rupees (approximately 42 cents); the survey found that wages were not promptly disbursed.¹⁵ Of¹⁶ten both adults and children are paid per square yard, which makes the weavers work very long hours. A review of current literature indicates that children work an average of six to twelve hours a day.¹⁷

Most looms are located in earthen shacks or sheds scattered throughout villages. These sheds are similar to a typical lodging for a family in a rural village. Only a small percentage of carpet production actually occurs in factories (housing multiple looms). The NCAER study found that 91 percent of the children sampled lived and slept in weaving sheds, and basic amenities, such as light, ventilation, and toilets were deficient or unavailable.¹⁸ Anti-Slavery International described loom sheds as small, seldom more than twelve feet by nine feet, with very little light.¹⁹ Trenches about 3 feet deep and 21 feet wide are dug into the floor to accommodate the looms which are too high for the sheds. During the weaving process, three to six children and/or adults sit shoulder to shoulder. Usually there are one adult and two boys per loom, sitting in damp pits, which fill up with water during the monsoon season.²⁰

Children are charged for meals, which include a few chapatis (bread), onions, and salt.²¹ They also suffer health-related problems. The NCAER 1993 study found that cuts and injuries were common. Over 90 percent of the children complained of swelling of lower limbs and severe pain in the joints.²² Children also came into constant contact with woolen fluff causing skin troubles including scabies and respiratory ailments. Work in ill-lit sheds impacted the eyesight of 40 percent of the children.²³ Similarly, SACCS reveals that bonded children rescued from the carpet looms say they were overworked and beaten. When children suffered cuts to the fingers during weaving, the loom owners scrape sulphur from matches heads into the wound and then set the wound on fire to stop the bleeding.²⁴ In addition, children have also been known to suffer loss of eyesight due to poor lighting and deformed backs due to long hours of sitting in cramped conditions.²⁵ Children suffer from psychological distress,²⁶ and are beaten and even tortured if they attempt to escape from the looms.²⁷ Some reports describe children beaten to death by loom owners for making mistakes.²⁸

Numerous stories about children published in newspaper reports and non-governmental periodicals describe bonded child labor in the carpet industry.²⁹ Many children who work in the carpet belt are sold into debt bondage by their parents, or merely taken with promises of future payments.³⁰ A Fact Finding Committee commissioned by the Order of the Supreme Court of India confirmed that a large number of children work as bonded laborers in the carpet industry.³¹ The vast majority come from the poorest part of Bihar, the most impoverished state in India.³² In the bonded labor system, recruiters give parents a cash advance or "loan." The child is often taken far away to weave carpets in order to work off the family debt. The debt is rarely paid off and indebtedness may carry on for generations. The child is, in effect, an indentured servant with virtually no rights and no protections. In cases where a bonded child is sent to work with a family, his treatment is significantly worse than the other non-bonded children.

When parents are in fact paid, the going rate for an eight year old boy is 1,500-2,000 rupees ($50-$60), a substantial sum for many families. Once the deal is struck, the recruiter will take a group of children at a time by bus and train to the "carpet belt", usually to the town of Bhadohi, where loom owners come to pick up their new workers. Reports have surfaced alleging that Nepali women and children are now also working in the Indian carpet industry. The Bonded Labor Liberation Front, together with local authorities, raided a small carpet factory in Mirzapur earlier this year, finding 86 Nepalis locked into a tin shed. Eyewitness reports confirm that children from Nepal are working in India's carpet industry. It is unclear, however, whether they arrive in India with their families voluntarily or whether they are forcibly brought into the carpet centers of India. News reports abound of similar carpet "factories" in Mirzapur and Bhadohi housing large numbers of migrant laborers locked into their place of work.

Gemstone Polishing

In 1993, India exported more than $1 billion worth of gems,³³ which is the largest export by value from India to the United States. The majority of these exports are diamonds, which are processed and polished in Surat, Gujarat, and emeralds which are polished in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Some sources allege that anywhere between 6,000 and 100,000 children are working in the diamond industry, cutting and polishing diamond chips.³⁴ These figures are uncorroborated.

The Operations Research Group in its 1993 report singled out the diamond-cutting industry in Surat, Gujarat, of special concern for child labor.³⁵ It found children, mostly boys between 12 and 13 years old, polishing diamonds for an average of seven to nine hours a day in unhygienic conditions.³⁶ This study also found major health and safety problems, including eye strain, headaches, leg and shoulder pain, malaria, discoloration of hair, rotten teeth, and dysentery. Wage rates were similar to adults; children, who received wages based on the number of diamonds they polished, reported a monthly income of 930 rupees (approximately $30). The Indian government, under its National Plan of Action, has targeted, on a priority basis, the diamond polishing industry in Surat as one of nine industries in which it will develop a Child Labor project.³⁷

In addition to diamonds, children also polish emeralds, sapphires, rubies, lapis lazuli, turquoise, corals, garnets, amethysts, and topaz.³⁸ Estimates of child workers in the gem industry in Jaipur range from 7,000 to 13,000.³⁹

A 1991 study by the Institute of Development Studies in Jaipur provides extensive documentation of child labor in the gem industry of Jaipur.⁴⁰ For example, the study cites a 12 year old girl using a drilling machine, children stringing gems, a 14 year-old girl cutting tiger stone, turquoise, amethysts and garnet, and a 9 year-old boy polishing stones.⁴¹

According to noted academic Neera Burra there are two categories of children working in the gem industry in Jaipur: 1) Children from 6 to 10 years old belonging to families of manual laborers and poorly paid people. These children work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and are completely illiterate; and 2) Children from 10 to 14 years old belonging to families with a fairly steady income. These children go to government schools and work about four hours a day after school.⁴²

According to Burra's 1991 study, children are involved in large numbers in the making of the "ghats"(rough cut stones), faceting and polishing of semi-precious stones. In the precious stone industries, children use oxides in the final stages of gem-polishing. In fact, in the final polishing with oxides, the entire labor force consists of children below fourteen.⁴³ Burra found that although children in the gem polishing industry are engaged as "apprentices," they are in fact a source of cheap labor.⁴⁴ The learning process takes five to seven years -- during the first two years children receive little or no remuneration. Children work for 10 hours a day. After the two years, a child worker is paid 50 rupees per month (approximately $1.70).⁴⁵

According to the Burra, local doctors revealed that more than 30 percent of the children get tuberculosis, presumably due to unhygienic conditions, overcrowding, and malnutrition.⁴⁶ Children complain of body ache and finger tips grazed by the polishing disc. The most common complaint was eye strain and allergic dermatitis due to constant use of dirty water.⁴⁷

Brassware and Base Metal Articles

Brass products, such as vases, figurines, planters, plates, dinner services, and tea sets are made in Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, and exported all over the world, including to the United States.⁴⁸ It is reported that more than 90 percent of the goods produced in Moradabad are intended for export.⁴⁹ The brass industry is made up of numerous unregistered shops in the guise of household units, thereby skirting child labor regulations.⁵⁰

The Operations Research Group documented occupational hazards of children working in the brass industry in 1993 and found that the average income of a child was 174 rupees per month (approximately $6) for eight to 10 hours of work six days per week.⁵¹ A dated, but detailed, study by Neera Burra in 1989 estimated that 40,000 to 45,000 children work in the brass industry in Moradabad.⁵² Children were recruited by middlemen called "dalals," who receive a commission from the employers for finding child workers. Contractors, or "thekedars," and workshop owners prefer children because they are easy to control.⁵³ Burra notes that, except for the process of engraving and coloring, child workers in the brass industry do not work with their families. Almost all the children in Moradabad work as wage laborers and are unrelated to workshop owners.⁵⁴

Children work in almost all aspects of brassware production for long hours and low wages, and are exposed to health hazards. Children remove molten metal from molds near furnaces. Burra observed these children standing, without protective gear, on top of furnaces with a temperature of 1,100 degrees celsius (approximately 2,000 degrees fahrenheit). Burns were a constant danger. Children were also observed working in electroplating, polishing, and applying chemicals to the wares. The constant inhalation of fumes from the furnaces and metal dust leads to tuberculosis and respiratory problems. During acid washing of the brassware, Burra noted that green and blue vapors rising into the air cause irritation to the eyes.⁵⁵

Glass and Glassware

In 1992, India exported more than $2 million worth of glass and glassware to the United States.⁵⁶ Estimates of the number of children working in the glass industry range from 8,000 to 50,000.⁵⁷ The glass and glassware industry in India is concentrated in Ferozabad. The glass factories of Ferozabad produce a number of glass items, such as bangles, chandeliers, wine glasses, beads, crockery, bulbs, and cut glass items. The factories also produce test tubes, beakers, and laboratory glass products.⁵⁸

The ILRERF Report referred to a glass-factory floor as Dante's "Inferno" due to the intense heat of the furnace (between 1,400-1,600 celsius), lack of ventilation, broken glass everywhere, dangling electric wires, and workers with no protective equipment (no shoes, gloves or goggles).⁵⁹ Both adult and child workers stand outside furnaces dipping iron rods into molten glass, bringing it out, and throwing it to glass molders or blowers. Boys as young as 11 or 12 sit on the floor for long hours in front of the pot furnaces, melting and fastening glass bangles and beads.⁶⁰ Often glass splinters injure the workers, and pieces of glass cut into the bare feet of the children. The children bump into each other as they have to run very fast before the molten glass can cool, and may scorch each other's bodies.

An earlier study in 1987 by Cox newspaper reporters found boys under 14 running from the furnaces to the glass blower carrying molten glass.⁶¹ The glass blower would then throw the hot iron pole, javelin style, to a child several feet below him, who would put water on it. The reporters observed children walking barefoot over glass littered floors, some with scarred eyes and burnt scalps.

In addition, children of the glass factories in Ferozabad suffer mental retardation,⁶² asthma, bronchitis, eye problems, liver ailments, skin burns, chronic anemia, and tuberculosis.⁶³ A recent study by Dr. Asha Singh of the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi revealed genetic damage in the body cells of the laborers working close to furnace heat for three years or more.⁶⁴

Footwear

In 1993, India exported more than $107 million worth of footwear to the United States.⁶⁵ The American Embassy-New Delhi advises that "child labor is known or widely believed to be used in the shoe export industry."⁶⁶ The American embassy further states that children are employed in the manufacture of shoes in the Agra area and that Agra shoe manufacturers are beginning to find markets in the West, possibly including the United States. Some sources estimate that as many as 25,000 children may be involved in shoe making, both for the domestic and international markets.⁶⁷

Children between 10 and 15 years old are assembling shoes.⁶⁸ Some 80 percent of the children work for contractors at home. Children work on soling (fixing upper portions of shoes to leather or rubber soles) with glue. Children in cramped poorly lit rooms suffer from continuous skin contact with industrial adhesives and breathing vapors from glues. The ILRERF report found children working in shoe factories throughout Agra, including road stalls, and in small factories. It is reported that children also work in larger factories.⁶⁹

Silk

Children are allegedly found in sericulture, silk weaving, and in the silk handloom industry. The May 1994 ILRERF report states that children, mostly girls, work in the silk industries. Children work in sericulture and silk thread spinning in the villages of southern Karnataka, as well as in silk handlooms in Varanasi and Kanchipuram. There are approximately 5,000 children employed in the silk thread industry in southern Karnataka.⁷⁰ ILRERF observed factories with children ranging in age from 5 to 16 who work from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. spinning silk.⁷¹ Another factory was found to employ young bonded workers, mostly girls. In contrast to the sericulture and silk thread weaving industry, it is difficult to witness child labor in the silk handloom industry, as it is a household industry.⁷²

A 1994 study mentions that because of scant governmental attention paid to child labor in the silk industry, a growing number of children are working in the industry in Bhagalpur.⁷³ The study was drawn from a sample of 250 child workers under 14 years of age in the silk industry in Bhagalpur.⁷⁴ Most child workers were between 11 and 13 years old, the smallest children being 5 years old.⁷⁵ The majority of the child workers received 5,000 to 10,000 rupees per year ($170-$340).⁷⁶ The largest number of children belonged to a disadvantaged class or are Muslims.⁷⁷ Moreover, data revealed that there were more boys than girls in this industry, and girls were generally below the age of 10.⁷⁸ Some of the health hazards include poor work conditions (lack of sanitation, water, and fresh air), diseases of the lungs and sight problems.⁷⁹ The Central Tessar Research Training Institute in Ranchi stated that silk weavers suffer from heart and skin diseases, and various other lung diseases.⁸⁰

The study notes that children are involved in virtually the entire process (about 14 phases) of silk manufacturing. Specifically, children dye the silk. This process involves boiling the skeins in water to remove the gum. The children then place the yarn on bamboo hangers for drying, after which, it is starched. Children about 14 years old commonly put prepared yarns on beams, weave the silk and then take it to the market.⁸¹

The Times of India in Patna on March 27, 1988 reported that silk made in Bhagalpur Tassar is exported to the United States, as well as to some European countries.⁸²

Matches and Fireworks

The fireworks and match industries of Sivakasi exist side by side, and therefore, reports study the industries together. The United States' importation of matches and fireworks/pyrotechnics from India is minimal.

According to the available literature, it is estimated that there are 50,000⁸³ to 100,000⁸⁴ child workers in the Sivakasi area working in the match and fireworks industries.⁸⁵ Overall, there are approximately 2,700⁸⁶ to 3,000⁸⁷ match units in Sivakasi and the Sivakasi-Sattur belt which produce 55 percent of the matches in India.⁸⁸ An ICFTU/APRO study in 1992 estimated that 55 percent of the workers are below 14 years. Many begin working at age five to seven.

According to findings by the ICFTU-APRO study in 1992, there are approximately 300 licensed fireworks factories and several hundred unlicensed units. These units account for 90 percent of India's fireworks production.⁸⁹ Most of the items are used for Diwali (Festival of Lights). Estimates of the number of children working in Sivakasi's fireworks industry range from over 30,000⁹⁰ to 70,000, according to SACCS.⁹¹ The children are reported to begin working in the fireworks industry at the age of 10 or 12.⁹² According to Manjari Dingwaney of the Rural Labor Cell (India), children are carried in buses from their villages to the work sites between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. in the morning and return home between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.⁹³ Children dye outer paper, roll gun powder, make firecrackers, dip material into chemicals, and pack the final products for seven to twelve hours a day every day.⁹⁴

According to the ICFTU, children in semi-mechanized industries earn 15 to 18 rupees a day (approximately 51 to 62 cents), but those who work in tiny sector match units or unlicensed fireworks units only receive 8 to 15 rupees (approximately 28 to 51 cents).⁹⁵ The ILRERF found that children were paid on a piece rate basis which varied between boys and girls.⁹⁶

Hazardous work environments in match and firework factories, including highly inflammable chemicals spread on the unprotected floor have resulted in fatal accidents.⁹⁷

III. Laws of India

A. National Child Labor Laws

Article 24 of the Constitution of India prohibits employment of children under 14 years in factories, mines, or other hazardous employment. India has numerous laws pertaining to child labor which span over 100 years.⁹⁸ The Children (Pledging of Labor) Act, 1933 prohibits any agreement to pledge the labor of a child. Pledging means the taking of advances by parents and guardians in return for bonds.⁹⁹

In 1986, the Child Labor (Prohibition & Regulation) Act,¹⁰⁰ was promulgated to consolidate the various other child labor laws. It provides penalties for employing child labor; a uniform definition of "child" (14 years or under); machinery for proclaiming a list of prohibited occupations for children; and permission for any person to file a complaint against anyone employing children. Proscribed occupations include: carpet weaving, cloth printing, dyeing, weaving, manufacture of matches, fireworks, and explosives. The 1986 Act also limits child work for six hours between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. with one day of rest per week, and provides penalties of imprisonment and fine up to 10,000 rupees (approximately $340) for violations. For repeated offenses, imprisonment can be up to three years.

Critics of the Child Labor Act of 1986 note that the determination of age is left to the Inspector, and that the Act lowers some higher standards established by earlier acts.¹⁰¹ More specifically, the 1986 Act: lowers the age of entry for employment in motor transport, merchant shipping, and factories; puts child workers in agriculture or the unorganized sector outside the reach of the Act, and provides exemptions for family-based work.¹⁰² According to Dr. Jose Verghese, an advocate at the Supreme Court of India, labor statistics for 1992-1993 show that there were 349 prosecutions and 162 convictions under the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986.¹⁰³ The record shows that Uttar Pradesh was the only state with convictions under the Child Labor Act of 1986.

The Government of India has reportedly approved draft legislation to tighten provisions of the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 and improve enforcement.¹⁰⁴ The amendments would make violations of the law subject to the provisions of India's "Code of Criminal Procedure 1973," increase penalties, and empower Magistrates to dispose of cases speedily.

The enforcement of child labor laws, however, is weak in India. The Standing Committee on Labor and Welfare and the Ministry of Labor found inadequate enforcement of the Child Labor Act of 1986 by the States.¹⁰⁵ This Committee questioned the commitment of the Central Government to eliminating child labor. The 1993 Operations Research Group study was even more critical; it concluded, "[S]heer callousness, almost bordering on sadism, on the part of government officials is the main reason for the exacerbation of the sufferings of the child labor."¹⁰⁶

The implementation of child labor legislation in India is entrusted to labor inspectors, representatives of the Ministry of Labor at the district level.¹⁰⁷ Labor inspectors are responsible for ensuring that no child below the stipulated age is employed. The judicial department inquires into complaints. Enforcement is divided; some labor inspectors enforce the Factories Act; others enforce the Child Labor Act of 1986. While conducting seminars for enforcement officials, the National Labor Institute's Child Labor Cell instructors found that many inspectors were uninformed about the laws.¹⁰⁸ Moreover, credible sources maintain that rampant corruption further compromised enforcement of child labor laws. Finally, there is a lack of labor inspectors. For example, in the carpet industry, Varanasi Deputy Labor Commissioner, D.P. Singh said his office had only six inspectors (two of them for Bhadohi). Inspectors were generally not welcome in the loom sheds and found that children were shifted out of sight when they arrived.¹⁰⁹

B. Education Laws

Although the Constitution of India directs the States to provide free and compulsory education to all children up to 14 years of age,¹¹⁰ it is not implemented. India has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world,¹¹¹ in addition to a very high drop out rate from school.¹¹²

Myron Weiner, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has written extensively on education in India, attributes the prevalence of child labor in India largely to the failure of the educational system. Professor Weiner notes that, due to a lack of compulsory education,¹¹³ half the population of school age children between 6 and 14 years old is at home or in the labor force. Weiner argues that it is not poverty which prevents India from investing more in its children, but rather the caste prejudices and value systems of those who create and implement policy in India. Professor Weiner notes, however, that the central government is calling for a substantial increase in expenditures for elementary education, though responsibility for funding remains primarily in the hands of state governments.¹¹⁴ Alec Fyfe of the International Labor Organization also emphasizes the importance of viewing child labor and educational policies as reciprocal within the context of India.¹¹⁵

C. International Conventions

India is a party to ILO No. Convention 5 Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment in Industry (predecessor to No. 59) and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. India is not a party to ILO Conventions No. 59 Concerning Minimum Age for Industry [revised]) or No. ILO Convention 138 Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment.¹¹⁶

IV. Programs and Efforts To Address Child Labor

According to the written testimony submitted by the Embassy of India to the Department of Labor, the Indian government has followed a 3-pronged strategy for child labor eradication under the National Policy of Child Labor in 1987:¹¹⁷

1. The Legislative Action Plan to tighten and improve enforcement of the law. A Child Labor Advisory Committee was set up to advise the Central Government on the addition of occupations and processes to the schedule contained in Child Labor (Prohibition & Regulation) Act of 1986.
   
   
2. General development programs benefitting child labor are being undertaken by State Governments. The National Policy on Education (1986) set the target of providing five years of schooling or its equivalent, through a "Non-Formal System of Education" (NFE), to all children who attained the age of 11 by 1990. Approximately 490,000 NFE centers were to be set up offering part-time and vocational courses. Voluntary agencies and local institutions were to be involved as well.¹¹⁸
   
   
3. Project-based Plan of Action in areas of high concentration of child labor engaged in wage and quasi-wage employment. This plan includes the adoption of specific projects/programs in areas where child labor is endemic. Nine National Child Labor projects are being implemented in five states and special schools have been set up which provide non-formal education.¹¹⁹ Child workers in the many sectors were to receive priority attention because either the employment processes in which they work were prohibited under the Factories Act, or the Child Labor Act of 1986, or the work was such as it was likely to affect the child's well-being.

The International Labor Organization and the Government of India are working in cooperation under the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC). The priorities for India in 1994-1995 will continue to be in the areas of bonded child labor and hazardous work, including the carpet industry, and the match and fireworks industries.¹²⁰ The ILO, through its Child Labor Action and Support Program (CLASP), is concentrating on target groups which mirror the Indian Government's child labor policy. The ILO's programs covered approximately 33,000 children between 1992 and 1993. The total funds committed by the IPEC for 59 action programs in India, up to March 1994, is $1,532,857.¹²¹ Many of these programs are run by community-based non-governmental organizations which establish special schools for working children. To date, no information on the curriculum, attendance rate, or effectiveness of these schools is available. Many of the schools are open only for a few hours per day so that the children are able to work and attend school.

The Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC) has adopted a code of conduct to eradicate the use of child labor in the carpet industry.¹²² To enforce this code, the CEPC has begun to register its looms. The registration certificate is to be compulsory for membership in the organization which oversees the majority of exports of carpets and floor coverings. The CEPC and the All-India Carpet Manufacturers Association (AICMA) have agreed to send all children employed in the carpet industry to their homes and stop fresh recruitment of workers below 14 years of age.¹²³ Only carpets made by complying factories will be sold overseas. The CEPC claims to have registered at least 50,000 looms where no children are employed. It warned that it would inspect factories to make sure that the labor code is not violated.¹²⁴ At the moment this industry initiative lacks an independent oversight mechanism to insure its accuracy and effectiveness.

The Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) adopted a resolution in May 1993 voicing concern over the increasing employment of child labor. The Conference called upon all INTUC branches to identify child labor in their own regions/branches and explore ways to evolve strategies and an effective Action Plan to mitigate child labor. Other plans for action are unknown.

Out of the countries studied for this report, India has perhaps the largest number of non-governmental organizations concerned with child labor. The South Asian Coalition Against Child Servitude, by far the most well-known, initiated a "Not Made by Children" campaign to effect India's carpet export earnings since carpets are frequently made by children. SACCS also has a program to release, and sometimes rehabilitate, bonded children.¹²⁵ There have been several well-publicized raids conducted by SACCS targeting carpet factories. After the children are liberated, Satyarthi and SACCS attempt to provide them with social support, return them to their families, and pressure the local government to respect India's constitutional commitment to free and compulsory education. Throughout the years, SACCS has also organized several marches across India against child servitude. SACCS focuses on all industries which it believes utilize child labor, particularly bonded child labor.

The Indo-German Export Promotion Program (IGEP), in cooperation with the Indian government, NGOs, international organizations such as UNICEF and the ILO, and leading carpet exporters was developing a system called "rugmark" to certify and label carpets made without child labor.¹²⁶ The negotiations for this project recently faltered, but the "rugmark" project has reportedly moved forward, on a reduced scale, in cooperation with a number of smaller carpet exporters who belong to an association called the Carpet Manufacturers' Association Without Child Labor.

Some other non-governmental organizations include: The Children's Emancipation Society, which has set up schools near the looms so that children can study in the morning and weave in the afternoons; The Campaign Against Child Labor, Youth for Voluntary Action (YUVA) in Bombay; Action for the Rights of the Child (ARC) in Pune; and Terre des Hommes (Germany) India Programme, and a public awareness campaign with the support of approximately 300 non-governmental organizations, the ILO, and UNICEF.

¹ Alec Fyfe, Child Labor Policy and the Role of Education in India (Geneva: International Labor Organization [unpublished manuscript], April 1994) 2 [on file] [hereinafter Fyfe].

² Estimate from the 43rd Round of the National Sample Survey conducted in 1987-1988, according to the Ministry of Labor of India [internal working document], Child Labor in India (1993) 2. Cited in Pharis Harvey and Lauren Riggin, Trading Away the Future: Child labor in India's Export Industries (International Labor Rights Education and Research Fund, May 1994) 3 [hereinafter ILRERF Report].

³ The Operations Research Group-Baroda, a widely-respected social research organization in India, conducted a national survey published in 1983 of 40,000 households and concluded that approximately 44 million children work in India. This figure is the most widely accepted estimate and is often cited by the International Labor Organization and other groups. K. Khatu, A.K. Tamang, and C.R. Rao, Working Children in India (Baroda: Operations Research Group, 1993). Cited in ILRERF Report at 5.

⁴ The Center for Concern for Working Children, a non-governmental organization in Bangalore, approximated the number of children who are not attending school, and put the figure of children working at 100 million. See ILRERF Report at 3. Other sources have put the figure at over 100 million. See International Child Labor Hearing, U.S. Department of Labor (April 12, 1994) (Statement of South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude (SACCS), India) [hereinafter Testimony of SACCS].

⁵ ILRERF Report at 36 (citing U.S. Department of Commerce statistics).

⁶ Id. at 53.

⁷ Testimony of SACCS.

⁸ American Embassy-New Delhi unclassified telegram no. 7883, April 22, 1992.

⁹ ILRERF Report at 56. According to the NCAER study, carpet children perform related jobs including unraveling woolen yarn and knotting carpets. See S. Vijayagopalan, Child Labor in the Carpet Industry: A Status Report (New Delhi: National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), February 1993) 43-44 [hereinafter 1993 NCAER Report].

¹⁰ M. Gupta and K. Voll, Young Hands At Work (New Delhi: Atma Ram and Sons, 1987) 49, cited in ILRERF Report at 54.

¹¹ ILRERF Report at 56. See also 1993 NCAER Report at 23. In 1992, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) found six to eight year old children working in the carpet industry.

¹² ILRERF Report at 57.

¹³ 1993 NCAER Report at 21.

¹⁴ B.N. Juyal, Child Labor in the Carpet Industry in Mirzapur-Bhadohi: A Situational Analysis & Evaluation of the Government of India's National Child Labor Project (New Delhi: International Labor Organization Child Labor Action and Support Project, 1993) 33 [hereinafter Juyal].

¹⁵ Almost 80 percent of the children reported that they were paid only in installments. Many were not aware of their exact monthly earnings. 1993 NCAER Report at 51.

¹⁶ ILRERF Report at 57.

¹⁷ The American Embassy-New Delhi found estimates of children working in excess of 12 hours per day. American Embassy-New Delhi unclassified telegram no. 7883, April 22, 1992. The NCAER also found that children working on family looms worked an average of 6 hours a day, while hired wage earning children worked 9.2 hours a day. See 1993 NCAER at 45. See also Hamish MacDonald, "India: Boys of Bondage," Far Eastern Economic Review, July 9, 1992, 18-19, (quoting Indian sociologist B.N. Juyal) [hereinafter MacDonald].

¹⁸ See Table 37 of 1993 NCAER Report at 56.

¹⁹ A Pattern of Slavery: India's Carpet Boys (London: Anti-Slavery International, 1988) 20.

²⁰ See also ILRERF Report at 57.

²¹ ILRERF Report at 57. See also Juyal at 66. Migrant child workers are charged approximately 150-175 rupees ($5-$6) per month for food.

²² 1993 NCAER Report at 56.

²³ 1993 NCAER Report at 57.

²⁴ Stephen Wagstyl, "The child victims of India's slave trade: India's poor sell their children as cheap labor without suspecting the true nature of the transaction," Financial Times, December 19, 1992, 1 [hereinafter Wagstyl]. Barbara Walton, "Carpet factory raided in India to free enslaved children," Associated Press, November 7, 1992. See also ILRERF Report at 59.

²⁵ "ILO help sought to tackle child labor problems," The Indian Worker, August 2, 1992, 5. Christopher Thomas, "Carpet traders ordered to free child slaves," The Times (India), July 27, 1993.

²⁶ Wagstyl at 1.

²⁷ The observations of the Fact Finding Committee appointed August 1, 1991 by Order of the Supreme Court of India in Writ Petition No. 12125 of 1984. Cited in Children in Bondage (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1992) 13.

²⁸ Interviews with CREDA and Bonded Labor Liberation Front, Mirzapur, by U.S. Department of Labor official, May 7, 1994.

²⁹ For some of the stories see Vijay Joshi, "Kids bound to the looms," Associated Press, July 14, 1994; "Freed children recount torture, slavery in carpet industry," Agence France Presse, September 8, 1992; "Bonded child laborers kidnapped after rescue," The Economic Times (India), October 7, 1993; "Fear stalks rescued kids," The Times of India, January 12, 1994; "Nine bonded children freed from carpet looms in Mirzapur," The Indian Worker, November 30, 1992; Barbara Walton, "Carpet factory raided to free enslaved children," Associated Press, November 7, 1992; "The March to Delhi," Child Workers in Asia, vol. 4, nol. 9, no. 1, (October-December 1992 and March 1993) 28; and ILRERF Report at 57-59.

³⁰ See Edward Gargan, "Bound to Looms by Poverty and Fear: Boys in India Make A few Men Rich," New York Times, July 9, 1992. The NCAER study also confirms this phenomenon and notes that lump sum payments of 2,300 to 2,800 rupees ($78-$95) to parents was a universal feature in contracting hired child labor. 1993 NCAER Report at 41.

³¹ Children in Bondage (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1992) 12.

³² Agents travel great distances to recruit and even kidnap children from the poorest parts of India. The child becomes "bonded" to the employer when he is in effect sold outright for a fixed sum or when parents are enticed to "loan him out" in exchange for money used to purchase livestock, pay for a marriage, and other expenses. ILRERF Report at 57. A literature review and numerous interviews with officials in India indicate that Bihar is the "catchment" area for child workers in the Mirzapur-Bhadohi carpet industry (especially from the Palamau, Rohtas, Saharsa, Ranchi, and Garawa districts).

³³ ILRERF at 36 citing U.S. Department of Commerce statistics for 1993.

³⁴ See ILRERF Report at 60.

³⁵ Child Labor in Different Studies: Consolidated Report (Madras: Operations Research Group, 1993) cited in ILRERF Report at 60.

³⁶ Child Labor in Different Industries: Consolidated Report, (Madras: Operations Research Group, 1993) 66. See also ILRERF Report at 61.

³⁷ See International Child Labor Hearing, U.S. Department of Labor (April 12, 1994) (Statement of the Embassy of India) [hereinafter Testimony of Embassy of India]. See also Fyfe at 6-11.

³⁸Neera Burra, Child Labor in the Gem Polishing Industry in Jaipur (Noida: Child Labor Cell, National Labor Institute, January 1991) 8 [hereinafter Burra, Gem Polishing].

³⁹ The 1979 study by the Gurupadaswamy Committee concluded that there were at least 10,000 children, while Neera Burra's report for the Ministry of Labor and UNICEF, published by the Child Labor Cell in January 1991, documented 13,000 children. Id. at 8-9.

⁴⁰ See generally Child Labor in the Gem Polishing Industry of Jaipur (Jaipur: Institute of Development Studies, August 1991).

⁴¹ Id. at 21-32. During a May 1994 trip to Jaipur, a U.S. Department of Labor official observed numerous small street-side gem-polishing enterprises where boys as young as 10 or 11 were polishing emeralds and other gemstones. The official was told that agents sold the rough gems to the small shops and repurchased only the acceptable polished gems.

⁴² Burra, Gem Polishing at 13.

⁴³ Id. at 11.

⁴⁴ Id. at 13.

⁴⁵ Id.

⁴⁶ Id. at 14.

⁴⁷ Id.

⁴⁸ Neera Burra, Child Labor in the Brassware Industry of Moradabad (New Delhi: International Labor Organization/Asian Regional Team for Employment Promotion, January 1989) 15 [hereinafter Burra, Brassware Industry].

⁴⁹ Id. at 4.

⁵⁰ Id. at 31.

⁵¹ Children in Different Industries (Operations Research Group, 1993) 56, 66 cited in ILRERF Report at 51-52.

⁵² Most of these children are Muslims. The rest are Hindus primarily from socially disadvantaged castes. Burra, Brassware Industry at 26.

⁵³ Id. at 26-27.

⁵⁴ Id. at 31.

⁵⁵ Id. at 14.

⁵⁶ U.S. Merchandise Trade: Exports and General Imports by Country (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1993) A-201.

⁵⁷ See American Embassy-New Delhi unclassified telegram no. 21518, November 19, 1993. See also Neera Burra, "Glass factories of Ferozabad," Economic and Political Weekly (November 15-22, 1986).

⁵⁸ Joseph Albright, "Illegal Labor casts a Long Shadow," in Stolen Childhood, Cox Newspaper (June 21-26, 1987) 19.

⁵⁹ ILRERF Report at 67-68. Visits by Departments of Labor and State officials confirmed the ILRERF's description of conditions in glass factories.

⁶⁰ ILRERF Report at 69.

⁶¹ Marcia Kunstel and Joseph Albright, "Jugglers of Molten Glass: Indian Boys Race Through Smokey factories," in Stolen Childhood, Cox newspapers (June 21-26, 1987) 15.

⁶² Carpets At What Cost, Consumer Unity and Trust Society [brochure], 3 [on file].

⁶³ "Abuses Against Children," Asia Link (October-December 1993) reprinted in Child Workers News, vol 2, no. 1 (Madras: Arunodhaya, January-March 1994) 4 [on file].

⁶⁴ Sheela Barse, "Glass Factories of Ferozabad," reprinted in Jose Verghese, Human Rights in India Today (New Delhi: National Center for Protection of Human Rights, 1992).

⁶⁵ Search of Piers Import database (Journal of Commerce, 1994); see also U.S. Imports (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1993) reprinted in ILRERF Report at 36.

⁶⁶ American Embassy-New Delhi unclassified telegram no. 21518, November 19, 1993.

⁶⁷ ILRERF Report at 72.

⁶⁸ American Embassy-New Delhi unclassified telegram no. 7883, April 22, 1992.

⁶⁹ ILRERF Report at 72.

⁷⁰ ILRERF Report at 76.

⁷¹ ILRERF Report at 74-75.

⁷² ILRERF Report at 76.

⁷³ Nidhi Sinha, Child Labor in the Indian Silk Industry (New Delhi: Uppal Publishing House, January 1994) 58, 87 [hereinafter Sinha].

⁷⁴ Id. at 101.

⁷⁵ Id. at 103.

⁷⁶ Id. at 107.

⁷⁷ Id. at 108.

⁷⁸ Id. at 109-110.

⁷⁹ Id. at 119-121.

⁸⁰ Id. at 87.

⁸¹ Id. at 59.

⁸² Sinha at 87.

⁸³ Manjari Dingwaney with Sunil Dogra, R. Vidyasagar, and Renu Gupta, Children of Darkness: A Manual on Child Labor in India (New Delhi: Rural Labor Cell, 1988) 8 [hereinafter Dingwaney et al].

⁸⁴ American Consulate-Madras unclassified telegram no. 944, March 13, 1992.

⁸⁵ Dingwaney et al at 8.

⁸⁶ ILRERF Report at 81.

⁸⁷ Pilot Study of Child Labor in Sivakasi (New Delhi: ICFTU-APRO, South Asia Office, 1992) 4 [on file] [hereinafter ICFTU-APRO].

⁸⁸ Id. at 4.

⁸⁹ ICFTU-APRO at 4.

⁹⁰ Letter from Campaign Against Child Labor to the Prime Minister of India (October 11, 1993) [on file].

⁹¹ Peter Goodspeed, "10 Million Suffer Ugly Reality of Child Slavery," The Toronto Star, February 2, 1993, A2.

⁹² ICFTU-APRO at 4.

⁹³ Dingwaney et al at 8.

⁹⁴ See ILRERF Report at 81-82. See also K. Mahajan and J. Gathia, Child Labor: An Analytical Study (New Delhi: Center of Concern for Child Labor, September 1992) 27; and Dingwaney et al at 8.

⁹⁵ ICFTU-APRO at 7.

⁹⁶ ILRERF Report at 82.

⁹⁷ ICFTU-APRO at 10. On October 11, 1993, The Campaign Against Child Labor (CACL) urged Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to appeal to the nation not to use firecrackers made by children during Diwali. ILRERF Report at 82. See also Mahajan and Gathia at 27; Dingwaney et al at 8.

⁹⁸ Dingwaney et al at 130. See Dingwaney for a comprehensive history of child labor legislation in India. Recent laws include The Factories Act, 1948; the Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act of 1949; the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act of 1951; The Mines Act, 1952; The Factories (Amendment) Act of 1954; The Merchant Shipping Act of 1958; The Motor Transport Worker's Act of 1961; The Apprentices Act of 1961; The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act 1966; and the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act of 1978.

⁹⁹ The practice of pledging was noticed by the Royal Commission on Labor in such areas as Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Madras, etc, in carpet and bidi (cigarette) industries:

The system is indefensible. It is worse than the system of indentured labor, for the indentured laborer is, when he enters on the contract, a free agent, while the child is not. (cited in Dingwaney et al at 131).

¹⁰⁰ For details see "Report of the Task Force on the Implementation of the Child labor (Prohibition & Regulation) Act" and the Legal Action Plan contained in the National Child Labor Policy, constituted by the Central Advisory Committee on Child Labor, Ministry of Labor (1989).

¹⁰¹ Dr. Jose Verghese, Law Relating to the Employment of Children in India (Secunderabad: Socio-Legal Resource Center, 1989) 14. Cited in ILRERF Report at 28.

¹⁰² For further discussion of the 1986 Child Labor Act, see ILRERF Report at 29-34.

¹⁰³ Letter from Dr. Jose P. Verghese, Advocate of Supreme Court of India, to International Child Labor Study (June 25, 1994). During a visit to India by a U.S. Department of Labor Official, an Indian government official maintained that there were 6,784 prosecutions and 1,007 convictions in 1993-1994 under both the Factories Act and the Child Labor Act of 1986 [chart on file]. Despite repeated requests by the Department of Labor official, the Indian government did not provide a breakdown to determine if any of these prosecutions and convictions were under the 1986 Child Labor Act.

¹⁰⁴ Testimony of the Embassy of India.

¹⁰⁵The 3rd report: Standing Committee on Labor and Welfare (1993-1994) (10th Lok Sabha) Ministry of Labor - Abolition of Child Labor, published by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi, October 1993, 15 §2.23.

¹⁰⁶ ILRERF Report at 14.

¹⁰⁷ G. Suvarchala, "Legislation to Combat Child Labor: An International Perspective," Industrial Relations Journal (Spring 1992) 50 [hereinafter Suvarchala].

¹⁰⁸ ILRERF Report at 15.

¹⁰⁹ Hamish McDonald at 18-19 (1992).

¹¹⁰ Article 45 of the Constitution of India.

¹¹¹David Housego, "Survey of India," Financial Times, June 26, 1992.

¹¹² The World Bank and other donor nations are reportedly pressuring India to make universal primary education a priority. Ms. E. Watanabe, then representative of UNICEF-New Delhi, stated "If there is good quality primary education, I am convinced that the great majority of parents would want to send their children to school." Id.

¹¹³ Myron Weiner, "The Child and the State in India: How do you end child labor?," (Paper for presentation at the 87th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 21, 1992, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 2 [on file].

¹¹⁴ Id. at 15.

¹¹⁵ Making education the central activity of childhood reduces the potential danger of the work children may still do. Schools can also be a delivery mechanism for important complementary services. Alec Fyfe, Child Labor Policy and the Role of Education in India, [unpublished paper] (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1994) 35 [on file].

¹¹⁶ Lists of Ratifications by Convention and by Country (as at December 1992) (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1993).

¹¹⁷ Testimony of the Embassy of India.

¹¹⁸ Critics maintain that only a tiny fraction of approved expenditure had therefore actually been taken up to implement the national projects. Fyfe states that by 1992, only 270,000 NFE centers had been established (10 percent run by NGOs). In 1991/92, only 40,000 rupees were sanctioned for the NFE program, yet the Eighth Plan proposes 850,000 rupees (or 4,000-8,000 per center) per year. Instructors under the plan expected to receive 200-600 rupees per month, but only receive 105 rupees per month. Moreover, the NFE centers lacked data and no figures existed for enrollments in NFE Centers. Fyfe at 14.

¹¹⁹ These sectors are: Match Industry in Sivakasi; Diamond Polishing in Surat; Precious Stone Polishing in Jaipur; Glass Industry in Ferozabad; Brassware Industry in Moradabad; Handmade Carpet Industry in Mirzapur-Bhadohi; Handmade carpets in Jammu & Kashmir; Lock-making in Aligarh; Slate Industry in Mandsaur; and Slate Industry in Markapur.

¹²⁰ International Program on the Elimination of Child labor: Program and Budget for 1994-1995 (Geneva: International Labor Organization, November 19, 1993) 16-17.

¹²¹ IPEC Reflections on the Past, Pointers to the Future (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1994) Appendix II.

¹²² "CEPC Code Hopes to End Child Labor," Hindustan Times (India), January 9, 1994.

¹²³ "Indian Carpet Units Not to Employ Child Laborers," The Xinhua News Agency, August 12, 1992.

¹²⁴ "India's Export Promoters Adopt Child Labor Code," Associated Press, January 7, 1994.

¹²⁵ Child workers rescued by SACCS are lodged in "Mukti Ashram" outside Delhi, where they are given an education and taught a trade. Timothy Ryan, "Profile: Kailash Satyarthi, Indian crusader Seeks to halt child slavery," Far Eastern Economic Review, 62 (July 8, 1993).

¹²⁶ American Embassy-New Delhi unclassified telegram no. 21518, November 19, 1993.