Consumers will be able to recognize Rugmark rugs by a label that only they will carry.
The murder of lqbal Masih, a year ago this week, forced many Americans to look at a problem they would have preferred to avoid; child labor in developing countries. Iqbal was a world-famous human rights activist. He was also a young Pakistani boy whose mother had sold him to a rug maker when he was four. Iqbal eventually freed himself, and by the time he was murdered, at the age of twelve, he had helped free 3,000 other bonded child laborers. That is probably why he was murdered. But many millions of children in Pakistan, India, and other developing nations continue to work as gemstone polishers, glass blowers, and makers of matches, fireworks, clothing and hand-knotted rugs, often in conditions that are unspeakable.
Children who knot rugs are crowded into filthy, poorly lit shops that have minimal ventilation for as many as 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are often chained to their looms, and they risk being beaten or even killed if they try to escape. Many die anyway because of the horrible conditions under which they work. Manufacturers consider young children to be desirable "employees" because they work hard and put up with pay and conditions that adults would not tolerate. The children receive no more than a couple of cents a day for their work; many get nothing.
A number of developing nations -- India and Nepal, for example -- have laws on the books banning child labor. Nevertheless, you hear some people using hard-nosed economic arguments to justify exploitation of children. They say that if child labor is what it takes to bolster the economy in a developing country, that's the price the country has to pay. And it's really nobody else's business anyway. But many of these countries also have very high unemployment among adults. Why shouldn't companies hire adults so that parents can support their children instead of having to sell them into bondage?
However, we don't have to wait for the companies making hand-knotted rugs to get religion ( or for countries that are dragging their feet to start enforcing their child labor laws). These rugs are an important export item, and people who buy them can have a big say about the conditions under which they are made. The traditional weapon used by people who want to protest economic injustice is the boycott: Don't buy the product. But a boycott only punishes, and it often punishes those who act responsibly as well as those who don't.
An Indian child advocate named Kailash Satyarthi had a better idea. He established a nonprofit foundation that allows consumers to identify and buy hand-knotted rugs that are not made with child labor. Rugmark, as the foundation is called, inspects companies that apply for certification and vouches for the fact that they are not using child labor to make their hand-knotted rugs. Inspectors also pay surprise visits to Rugmark-certified companies to make sure they continue to abide by their commitment to use adult labor only. Consumers can recognize Rugmark rugs by a label that only they will carry (see below).
Rugmark, which is now two years old, has signed up and certified 15 percent of the companies producing hand-knotted rugs in India. A number of others are moving toward certification, but the process is complicated and many carpet makers are understandably hostile to the idea of losing a cheap, excellent, and plentiful supply of labor. So far, the total production of Rugmark rugs has gone to Germany, where the country's largest mail order firm and several large department stores have agreed to carry them. But Rugmark has recently opened up shop in Nepal, with the support of 70 percent of the carpet manufacturers there. These rugs will soon be available for import to the U.S. It's up to American consumers to start talking to stores and catalog companies that carry hand-knotted rugs. They should let the businesses know that they do not want rugs made by children, and they should urge them to put pressure on the importers they deal with.
This coming week, the first Rugmark-certified rugs imported to the U.S. will be auctioned off at a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of lqbal Masih's death last year. If American consumers do their part, these rugs should be the first of many.
For more information about the Rugmark campaign and the availability of Rugmark-certified rugs, contact the Child Labor Coalition, c/o the National Consumers League, 1701 K St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006; tel. 202-835-3323.