Tainted Carpets: Slavery and child labour in India’s hand-made carpet sector

This report was published in January 2014 by Harvard University’s Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. The research for the report was conducted by Siddharth Kara and eight field researchers who visited carpet-weaving units and documented the exploitative conditions prevalent there. Tainted Carpets: Slavery and child labour in India’s hand-made carpet sector covers nine states across northern India: Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It thus delved into areas beyond the traditional ‘carpet belt’ of southeastern Uttar Pradesh. The report classifies the exploitation of the workers into five types: (i) forced labour under Indian law, (ii) forced labour under international law, (iii) bonded labour, (iv) human trafficking and (v) child labour. The study found that these dehumanising offences tainted the handmade carpet supply chain which derived high profits in retail stores within the United States of America.Along with direct quotes from carpet weavers and first-hand observations of the researchers, the report also offers recommendations to end exploitative practices in the carpet weaving sector. Some of its recommendations include increasing the minimum wage and a thorough investigation of the supply chains.The 74-page report is divided into eight sections: Executive Summary (Section 1); Overview of Research (Section 2; Overview of Carpet Weaving in India (Section 3); Discussion of Relevant Law (Section 4); Discussion of Results (Section 5); Discussion of Specific Case Studies (Section 6); Tainted Supply Chains: India to the United States (Section 7); and Recommendations (Section 8).