Largest-ever First-hand Investigation Into Slavery And Child Labor Finds Forced Labor Prevalent In India’s Hand-Made Carpet Sector

Editor's Comment

8 year-old Arvind, weaves a carpet in a rat infested factory at Mirzapur, India. Throughout South Asia, nearly 300,000 children are forced to weave rugs for the highly profitable handmade rug industry. Many of them are victim to their family’s debts and are sent off to work in dreadful conditions as young as seven years old. Others were kidnapped or trafficked. These children suffer from malnutrition, impaired vision and breathing, sexual abuse and injuries from using dangerous tools. - Bazaar Velvet

This Harvard University study serves to confirm what most big handmade carpet retailers in the United States and Europe already know ... and some attempt to hide. Axis of Logic provides additional photos and commentary below the Harvard article of the children, the faroff destinations of their products in retail markets of the West and an example of corporate methods for misleading the public. Buyer beware.

- Les Blough, Editor
Axis of Logic

January 28, 2014
Harvard's FXB Center for Health & Human Rights
Siddharth Kara, Fellow with the FXB Center.

India is World’s Largest Exporter of Hand-Made Carpets, Which Are Sold In Many Major U.S. Retail Chains

Cambridge, MA – January 28, 2014 – Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights today released a report on the largest-ever first-hand investigation into slavery and child labor, which focuses on the hand-made carpet sector of India. The report – titled “Tainted Carpets: Slavery and Child Labor in India’s Hand-Made Carpet Sector” – explores well beyond the traditional “Carpet Belt” region of Uttar Pradesh to cover nine states in northern India where production sites belonging to 172 different carpet exporters have been found to practice various forms of illegal forced labor. Key findings of the report, which was written by Siddharth Kara, a Harvard adjunct faculty member and expert on contemporary slavery and human trafficking, contradict claims that slavery and child labor have been eliminated from the sector, and include the following:

3,215 cases of forced labor under Indian law, with an estimated industry prevalence of 45%, including:

2,612 cases of forced labor under international law, with an estimated industry prevalence of 37%;
2,010 cases of bonded labor, with an estimated industry prevalence of 28%;
1,406 cases of child labor, with an estimated industry prevalence of 20%;
286 cases of human trafficking, with an estimated industry prevalence of 4%.

The report documents that:

“the working conditions uncovered were nothing short of subhuman. Factories and shacks were cramped, filthy, unbearably hot ... filled with stagnant and dust-filled air, and contaminated with grime and mold. Some sites were so filthy, pungent, and dangerous that the researchers were afraid to enter due to the risk to their safety.”

The workers in these conditions also endured the following:

An average hourly wage for carpet workers of $0.21;
Chronic underpayment of minimum wages by 40% to 65%;
Women and children paid 12% to 32% less than adult males;
99.9% of cases belonging to minority ethnicities or low caste groups;
An average work day of 10 to 12 hours, six to seven days a week.

The major carpet exporters who were found to be using slave-like labor will be contacted and invited to collaborate with the FXB Center in an effort to eradicate these practices. Similarly, the major retail chains in the United States who have relationships with these carpet exporters will be encouraged to closely examine their supply chains to ensure that they are free of slave-like labor exploitation. The U.S. companies include:

Macy’s,
Neiman Marcus,
Bloomingdale’s,
Target,
Sears,
Crate & Barrel,
Williams-Sonoma,
Pottery Barn,
Ethan Allen,
IKEA,
Home Depot,
Walmart,
JC Penny,
Pier 1 Imports,
ABC Carpet and Home, and
Cost-Plus, among others.

In total, $306 million (declared import value) worth of hand-made carpets were imported by the United States from India in 2012, which amounts to a retail value of between $1.8 and $3.1 billion.

The report contains a series of recommendations, which include, among others, elevating efforts to reliably and independently certify the carpet industry supply chain, increasing investigations and prosecutions of exploiters, supporting and empowering vulnerable communities, raising the minimum wage, enforcing minimum wage payments, making additional payments for overtime, and increasing consumer awareness.

“U.S. and Western consumers must become more aware of the atrocious conditions under which their carpets are woven,” said Siddharth Kara, the report’s author. “Those conditions must then be improved in a way that does not cause any ill effects to local populations.”

The complete report is available at FXB Center for Health & Human Rights. Harvard University

For additional information or to speak with Siddharth Kara, please contact Bonnie Shnayerson, FXB Communications, or call (617) 432-7134.

About the FXB Center: The François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University is the first academic center to focus exclusively on the practical dynamic between the issues of health and human rights. Founded in 1993 through a gift from the Association François-Xavier Bagnoud, the FXB Center is a world leader in building a conceptual basis of the right to health and driving advocacy initiatives to incorporate human rights norms into international health policy. Read more here.

Axis of Logic cites Macy's Department Stores as one example of the big corporate chains that sell carpets made by children in India.

The carpet in the photo is one example of a carpet made in India and sold by Macy's Department Store. Are you tempted to buy it? Macy's current advert on their website for this beautiful rug reads:

MANUFACTURER'S CLOSEOUT! Sphinx Area Rug, Windsor 23102 8'0" X 10'0". Direct from vendor: usually ships within 5 business days. Impressive details are painstakingly applied by hand, pairing deep, distinctive colors with an intricate vine and blossom motif to create an heirloom-quality piece that's steeped in tradition. Please select a specific size for more information. Original $1,319 Now $649.97. 100% wool, Hand tufted, Made in India, Sphinx Rugs, All rug sizes are approximate. Rug surcharge applies.

A child carpet-weaving
laborer in Mirzapur, India.

Children from Northern India, sold to support their families.

Carpet weavers like this family are usually Dalits or "Untouchables," the lowest caste, spread across India. Often the children are working for the family or someone in their village who has fallen into debt. An offer is made to place a loom in their hut so they can pay off their debt, but this only ensures their enslavement, sometimes for generations.

Images of Human Trafficking

Child carpet-weavers in Rajasthan State, Baaseli Village. Children making carpets for export. Weaving with wool on a loom.

Corporate Lies

As news of childhood slavery becomes more widely known, some corporate retailers hide behind companies like Goodweave Child-Labor-Free Certified Rugs. David Mink, Sr. operates the Fine Rug Gallery at Macy's Department Stores across the US. The Minks purchased leases for all 200 Macy's rug departments in the U.S. in 2009. They joined "Goodweave" in June, 2011. At that time, Molly Langenstein, Macy's executive vice president for fashion design and new business development, announced:

"By buying a hand-woven rug at Macy’s with the GoodWeave label, shoppers are helping to support families and build sustainable communities in Nepal and India, nations where poverty is widespread,. GoodWeave certified rugs are woven by skilled adult artisans, permitting educational opportunities for children who otherwise might be required to work. A GoodWeave rug makes a beautiful statement in your home, and about making our world a better place.”

Below is a doubleback push by "Goodweave," posted on their website, promoting Macy's, one of their clients. Although Macy's joined Goodweave nearly 3 years ago, technical inspection of their promotion indicates that it was updated today, January 28, 2014 3:37:38 PM. Dave Mink is quoted in the promo:

“Macy’s is a company that does things right. It doesn’t want to be involved with child labor or sweatshops in any way.” From a business standpoint, joining GoodWeave can only be a good thing, as it helps us positively answer questions about how our rugs are made. I am particularly in favor of the educational aspects of the GoodWeave program.... I’ve been to India 40 to 50 times, and seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I think it’s important to give back to weaving families and do our part.””

Spotlight On: The Fine Rug Gallery at Macy’s
Swedesboro, New Jersey

David Mink, Sr.

From a boot-strapping business borne of one man’s penchant for globetrotting, to a thriving family company running the rug departments for America’s largest department store chain, Kenneth Mink’s business has come a long way since its founding in 1972. In 2009, Mink’s operation not only acquired the leases to all 200 Macy’s rug departments and macys.com, but also joined GoodWeave®, pledging to source rugs certified child-labor-free from its suppliers in India.

Before taking over the Fine Rug Gallery at Macy’s, Mink’s operation was in the department store business for five generations. Founder Kenneth Mink Sr. steered the family profession towards rugs, taking a number of rug-buying jobs in the 1950s and 1960s to satisfy his love of travel. Kenneth’s sons: Dave Sr., Ken Jr. and Fred came on board in the 1970s, when Kenneth landed the leases to the rug departments in the Washington, DC-based Woodward & Lothrop chain, and began to build the family rug empire.

Now operating the Fine Rug Gallery at Macy’s, Dave Mink Sr. is eager to partner with GoodWeave and contribute to its mission of helping children in weaving communities. “Macy’s is a company that does things right. It doesn’t want to be involved with child labor or sweatshops in any way,” says Dave Sr. “From a business standpoint, joining GoodWeave can only be a good thing, as it helps us positively answer questions about how our rugs are made. I am particularly in favor of the educational aspects of the GoodWeave program.”

Currently, the Fine Rug Gallery at Macy’s carries select certified lines from the Bashian and Kenneth Mink brands. Both the Fine Rug Gallery at Macy’s and macys.com will make GoodWeave certified rugs a larger segment of its imports over time. GoodWeave certified lines incorporate everything from traditional designs to modern and contemporary styles.

Kenneth Mink passed away before he got to see his business’ success at Macy’s. However, several family members still carry the torch lit by the company’s founding father. In addition to his three sons: Dave Sr., Ken Jr. and Fred, Dave Sr.'s wife, Dottie, works on design; his daughter, Kristen Koontz, helps with customer service; and his son, David Jr., handles the day to day operation as CEO. Ken Jr.'s daughter, Caroline Mink Richardson, serves as Group Regional Sales Manager for Northwest stores and Fred's wife, Janice, assists with auditing as well as being the company liaison to GoodWeave because of her background in child advocacy.

Along with great adventurers like General Douglas MacArthur, oceanographer Captain Jacques Cousteau and Senator John Glenn, Dave Mink Sr. is a member of the prestigious century-old Circumnavigators Club, whose motto is to make the world a better place through friendship. Rug by rug, in partnership with GoodWeave, Mink’s operation of the Fine Rug Gallery at Macy’s is now living out that motto. “I’ve been to India 40 to 50 times, and seen the good, the bad and the ugly,” Dave Sr. concludes. “I think it’s important to give back to weaving families and do our part.”

For more, visit www.macys.com.

Goodweave Spotlight

Nearly 3 years later, the Harvard University Study lists Macy's first among the big retail corporations selling carpets made by little hands in India.

(all additional photos and related commentary by Axis of Logic)