Twenty years ago, millions of children in South Asia were kidnapped, sold, and forced to work in carpet factories. They worked and lived in terrible conditions, suffering from malnutrition, physical impairment including poor vision and deformed spine and limbs, and injuries inflicted by sharp tools. They worked up to 18 hours a day, with only one short break. If they worked too slowly, they would be beaten and tortured. Some of them were chained to their looms.Some of them were locked up for the night. There was no medical attention, and infections spread very rapidly. These children were a cheap and profitable labor. Most of them did not get paid, did not require much, and were very effective working in conditions of poor lighting and air ventilation.
Fortunately, many non-profit organizations have been working to bring the horrors of child labor in the carpeting industry in South Asia to light. Iqbal Masih, former enslaved child worker on looms in Pakistan, raised awareness of forced child labor, describing his own experience and working to end the child labor. He was killed, presumably by those who he fought against, when he was 12. But that only made his voice and his message stronger.
The Rugmark Foundation has been working for over fifteen years to end child labor in carpeting factories in India and Nepal, to rescue the enslaved children, to care for them, to put them back in schools, and to give them their dreams and opportunities back. The Rugmark foundation also has a certification process in place to ensure that rug manufacturers follow fair labor practices, including paying fair wages to their adult workers and not using child labor. The foundation had its own label placed on the rugs produced in the environment that complies with their standards. The rug manufacturers enter the certification process voluntarily and abide by the set standards.
Although recently the Rugmark Foundation has changed its label and brand name to Goodweave, their commitment to end child labor and provide opportunities for education remains strong. In the last fifteen years, the number of child workers in the carpeting industry has gone significantly down, but it is too early to celebrate. There are still 250,000 children in the region who have been kidnapped and forced to work in the same harsh conditions, beaten and abused. The Goodweave campaign will not stop until there are no more children forced to make rugs instead of going to school and playing with their friends. The Goodweave campaign asks you to join them in their efforts to stop child slavery by looking for rugs with Goodweave label, which are truly beautiful since no child’s tears are on it.
