Here is a common scenario: Your friend invites you over her new apartment. You arrive, leave your shoes at the door, walk in, and embrace the soft fresh carpet between your toes. "Why is this rug so impeccably wonderful?" You ask.
"It's handmade, imported directly from South Asia." She replies enthusiastically.
Like most people, the idea of how and by whom a certain product is made does not even past the mind, and thus is left undiscovered. It turns out that the handmade carpet industry located in South Asia exploits nearly 300,000 children, as calculated by The South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude. This means that evidence of the atrocities of slavery and child labor is literally right beneath your nose, in fact-your standing on it. Children around the ages of 4 to 15 years are by many means captured and trafficked into working for these handmade carpet companies. They receive extremely low pay, if any at all. If the child laborers are forced to live in the loom, they are then required to pay for food and shelter, thus resulting in a form of debt bondage. Other child slaves are traded in by their own parents for money, while others are simply kidnapped from their families.
Carpet makers adore the advantages to having children workers, any which include a child's typically better eyesight perfect for making elaborate designs in bad lighting and the simple fact that children do not know their rights making them accepting of the horrible treatment and deadly working environment. Children working as carpet makers are forced to handle harmful tools without any proper training and are exposed to many types of health problems. They are malnourished, their bodies deformed from sitting in cramped loom sheds, and even bare respiratory problems due to inhaling dust and wool fibers.
What's most upsetting about this is that once the child is trafficked into the carpet industry, the chances of he or she getting sold to another type of slavery becomes very high, especially for girls who make up about a quarter of the child laborers. These young girls, who are probably already getting sexually abused by other workers, can easily end up being trafficked into the sex trade. Another dire effect of child labor is its negative effect on the economy and household. Since employers choose to employ children, opportunities for adults diminish, and children are unable to attend school and get educated, causing poverty to be passed down. It seems impossible to break this cycle, but as always there is hope. Organizations such as Goodweave have already helped by building awareness about child labor in the carpet industry and inventing a certification system to ensure rugs have not been made by the hands of child slaves.
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I feel that this blog is very similar to the child abduction blog posted by JMCrespo. This is a very interesting blog because it can relate to many people across America. When I say this I mean that many Americans unknowingly purchase items that are labeled "handmade". When a person seee that something is handmade they generally dont think that children were the ones who made it. I feel this blog is very important because it can open th eyes of some people. Now i know that no-one will track down where all their handmade material has came from but maybe people will be more inclined to purchase items that are name brand, from american, or from a factory they are more familiar with.
ReplyDeleteAmericans feel the need to buy things which claim they are hand made without actually thinking about who could have made them. Many people don't want to believe that things that are hand made are made by slaves but people really need to be informed and buyers need to be aware of where they get their merchandise when they are buying from over seas.
ReplyDeleteProjects like Goodweave and Rugmark are pioneers in creating fair trade handmade products. We should be as committed as we can to purchasing products from brands that take a stand like these.
ReplyDeleteThis blog reminds me of many of the other cases of child slave labor where people don't think of the products they are buying and who made them. Just because something says handmade, people think it is extravegant but they never think of who made them. These children are exposed to really harsh conditions and as Americans, we should try to do something more to help put a stop to the child labor. These kids are being taken advantage of.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame that this happening in the world today. Children aren't suppose to work and be slaves; they are suppose to have fun and get a good education. It is good that they have projects like Goodweave to help these children.
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