Child labour is a very complicated developmental issue that affects human society across the globe. With over 250 million children working around the world, child labour is increasingly receiving international attention. India remains to fall short in its battle against child labor, having the approximately 60 to 115 million child labors. The incidence of Child labour could be attributed to several factors such as poverty, illiteracy, social apathy, ignorance, lack of education and exposure. It is often considered to be an additional source of income or a means of survival for the economically disadvantaged families.

Children in India are employed in almost all activities of the unorganized and the non-formal sector. The carpet industry which is largely labour intensive is one of the most defamed industry with regards to the employment of children. Owing to the high demand of Indian carpets in the international market around 1970s, the incidence of child labour increased rapidly.
Carpet making is one of the industries around the world wherein the children are gravely disadvantaged. A significant number of these children have been kidnapped from their parents and are forced to work under slave like conditions. Sometimes, children aged around 4 are coerced to weave rugs and carpets under painful and inhuman conditions. In certain incidences their hands are burned with irons so that they do not bleed on the rugs. Very often the looms are located in cramped building leaving very little room for sufficient working space. The children are made to work sitting in uncomfortable postures under poorly lit and badly ventilated spaces. Additional health problems may also occur because of direct skin contact with the dyes that are used for wool.

It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of children that would be presently involved in such kind of work. According to an estimate, around 500,000 children are believed to be working in the hand-weaving rugs and carpet industry in South Asia today. An ILO study estimated that in India there would be around 420,000 children employed in the Carpet industry.
 

JAIPUR RUGS, THE DIFFERENCE :
Right from its inception, the Jaipur Rugs Company has been producing hand-made carpets and rugs by employing skilled artisans. For many weavers, rug making is an inherited skill which they acquire from their forefathers. Despite the family custom of transferring the art from one generation to another, we have strongly discouraged our weavers from engaging their children in rug making. We are strictly against the exploitative practice of child labour and we ensure that our products as well as our manufacturing units adhere to the the required standard under prescribed laws. We discourage the employment of children not only in our weaving units but also at suppliers’ facilities. We have been open to surveys and inspections by external agencies and for this purpose agencies such as SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance, the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company), Intertek, BIS (Bureau of Indian standards) etc have surveyed our units through regular audits. Moreover, we comply with the code of conduct that has been recommended for production processes during the final manufacturing stages of BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative).

In our commitment and resolve against Child labour we also ensure that:
     ■ Our work contracts are based upon the sole condition of non involvement of child labour.
     ■ Jaipur Rugs Foundation, a non profit organization, also checks for any such cases and consequently takes action upon them.
     ■ We try and explore potential artisans and weavers. We encourage women to learn carpet weaving and share the work load with

         their male counterparts instead of involving kids.
     ■ Our customers are allowed to directly inspect our factories and meet our weavers. We encourage unannounced inspections of

        our units. We also allow various nonprofit child welfare organizations to access our looms and factories.
     ■ We educate our consumers about carpets and rugs produced without the use of child labour. We also encourage our importers

        to seek independent certification for child labour free carpets.

As a socially responsible organization, Jaipur Rugs makes elabourate efforts towards generating awareness and strengthening actions that would ensure the enforcement of prevention of child labour. In our efforts to achieve this, some of the initiatives that are worth mentioning include:
     ■ Generating awareness amongst consumers to buy products which are produced through the non involvement of children.
     ■ Creating greater educational opportunities for children. We try and motivate the children to get them enrolled in schools and

        continue with their education. We encourage our weavers to provide proper care, nourishment and primary education to their

        children.
     ■ Advocate for changes in the education policy of the government to incorporate measures that would cater to the needs of the

        migrant labour children.
     ■ We are committed to provide a sustainable means of livelihood to our weavers. We make our weavers self-sufficient and self-

        reliant so that they can afford a decent standard of living.
    ■ Empowerment of women through trainings in carpet weaving to ensure that they are financially independent.
We at Jaipur Rugs are committed to the holistic development of all our stakeholders with a paramount focus on the rural artisans and weavers and their families.