Child Labor and the Handmade Rug Industry
Child labor is a crime committed against one out of every seven children around the world.
Despite laws prohibiting it, child labor is rampant in South Asia's handmade rug industry. Rugs are among South Asia’s top export products, and children ages 4-14 are routinely kidnapped or sold and forced to work as many as 18 hours a day. They are subject to malnutrition, impaired vision, deformities from sitting long hours in cramped loom sheds, respiratory diseases from inhaling wool fibers and wounds from using sharp tools.
While some people mistakenly think it is better when all members of a family work, child labor actually makes poverty worse. The more children are forced to work, the fewer opportunities there are for adults to earn a living. By driving down adult wages and depriving children of education, child labor ensures that poverty will be passed down from generation to generation. A study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) found that it would cost $760 billion to end child labor, but the benefits to the economy would be more than six times that—an estimated $5.1 trillion in economies where child laborers are found.
By building awareness about the widespread use of child labor in the handmade rug industry and creating an effective certification system for child-labor-free rugs, GoodWeave is making a difference in the fight against child labor. More than 5.5 million certified carpets have been sold in Europe and North America, and the number of South Asian children trapped in illegal and exploitative carpet-making work has dropped from 1 million to 250,000. Nonetheless, there's still a great deal that needs to be done—and we need your help to eradicate child labor in the handmade rug industry once and for all.
Learn more about the child labor epidemic:
Children's Stories
At the age of five, Manju was already working on the rug looms. While she has since been found and freed from illegal carpet work, some 250,000 children throughout South Asia still toil in obscurity. Through the GoodWeave certification program more than 3,600 kids like Manju have been rescued, rehabilitated and educated, and thousands more deterred from entering the work force.
More Stories »About the Organization
GoodWeave works to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry by certifying child-labor-free rugs and by providing education and opportunities to rescued and at-risk children. Learn More »
