Child Labor India Rugs

Human rights and global sourcing.

Child labor india rugs. The number of child and or forced laborers in many countries such as india nepal pakistan and morocco is staggering. In brick kilns carpet weaving garment making domestic service food and refreshment. Across india child labourers can be found in a variety of industries. Despite rates of child labour declining over the last few years children are still being used in some severe forms of child labour such as bonded labour child soldiers and trafficking.

Ikea s global sourcing challenge. She immediately implements a strict policy that provides for contract cancellation if any ikea supplier uses child labor. Children work long hours for very little pay. During the past 20 years it has been one of the fastest growing industries and most of this growth has been achieved through the use of child labor.

Indian rugs and child labor a. After a few years of ikea undergoing speculation of unreliable suppliers in countries such as india pakistan and nepal whom used child labor freely throughout their practices ikea s business area manager of carpets marianne barner was faced with a dilemma that she was quickly forced to overcome. Child labor in ghana. For example in india estimates of child labor in india vary from the government s 1991 census figure of 11 3 million children under 15 working to human rights watch s estimate of between 60 million and 115 millions child laborers and about 200 000 were employed in the carpet industry.

Slavery and child labor in india s hand made carpet sector documents over 3 200 cases across nine states in india and found several hundred cases each of forced. Then in 1994 marianne barner a newly appointed ikea product manager is surprised by a swedish television documentary on the use of child labor by indian carpet suppliers including some that supply ikea s rugs. Indian rugs and child labor a basically explains the issue which the company ikea faces because of the increasing environmental and social issues with the suppliers. Weaving factories have learned they can escape law enforcement if any of labor laws by scattering small village units across the countryside with less than 10 workers each since these small factories are not covered by most labor laws in many of these countries.

The handmade woolen carpet industry is extremely labor intensive and one of the largest export earners for india pakistan nepal and morocco. 379 are working in developing countries and many of them were enslaved or bonded laborers. In the case the company confronted child labor issue and customers perceived that the low price they benefit was due to child labor exploitation in india customers would react by avoiding products from ikea that results in a drop in sales. The case ikea s global sourcing challenge.