Recently I looked into the issue of child labor in the cosmetic industry in India, which remains the worlds worst offender in regards to child labor abuses. As India Continues to Battle Against Child Labor, in-spite of having a number of laws against the practice, including the 1986 Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act, which states that children under fourteen years of age were prohibited to be employed in occupations deemed hazardous. Following the Act was a 2006 law, which banned the use of child labor for domestic purposes, and in the hospitality industry. Despite such specific laws, industries such as commercial sex, rug manufacturing, textiles, sports equipment, have all found themselves in the main stream spotlight. However I soon found the one area that had rarely hit the radar, the beauty industry. One rarely thinks of slavery as they apply your lipstick and mascara, but in fact it is right there in that sparkle that you love so much in your favorite shades. Yes, it just happens that the shine you love so well may have taken a small child hours to beat out of a stone. The shine in many cosmetics comes from mica, a sheet silicate (phyllosilicate) mineral. Mica, is a transparent mineral which is mined from the earth in thin sheets, and it is often opalescent and sparkling, but can be completely matte, and ranges in color from gray to blue to green.
Deep in the jungle of Jharkhand state in eastern India, at the end of a rutted track passable only by motorbike, a six-year-old girl named Sonia sat in the scorching midday sun, sifting jagged stones in an open-cast mine in the hope of earning enough money for a meal. Sonia was halfway through her working day and she was already exhausted and disheveled. Her hair was matted and her pretty flower-patterned dress spoilt by dust. She barely had enough energy to glance at her eight-year-old cousin Guri, toiling intently beside her as they searched the stones for pieces of mica… If the girls spotted enough mica, they might earn 63p each for a 12-hour day. If they found none, they would probably go hungry.(Times)
They say there is a price to be paid for beauty, they just didn’t tell us that the price would have to be paid by children. Now when you put on your silver simmer eyeshadow for that big night out, will you wonder if children forced to make that color that just makes your eyes pop?
Global March Against Child Labor estimates that one in every eight children from 5 to 17 years old, some 179 million, work in the worst forms of child labor. The ILO International Labor Organization estimates that some 80 million plus children under 14 years old work in conditions deemed hazardous to their health. Now if only there was an easier way to know if your make-up, coffee, chocolate, sugar, etc. where slave free? What about a list of items compiled by experts known to have slavery in their supply chain? If only such a list existed! Wait such a list does exist, but for some reason the list has yet to be released.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act reauthorization Act (TVPRA) was established in 200, then revised by Congress in 2005, at which time it was mandated that the Department of Labor (DOL) establish a list of products which where made by various forms of human trafficking/modern slavery, including child labor. However when the TVPRA was reauthorized again in 2008, the list was still yet to find its way into any consumers hands, despite increasing consumer and political awareness and activism. The need to release this crucial list was brought back into the public spotlight with the efforts of Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, who is the Executive Director of Polaris Project, and previous Ambassador-at-Large and Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), and Senior Adviser to the Secretary of State.Ambassador Lagon recently published an article for Change.org, Where’s the List of Slave-Made Goods the Department of Labor Promised?. “Why?” Ambassador Lagon asks;
“The Department of Labor, under the leadership of Secretary Elaine Chao until last January, said the requirement was an unfunded mandate - as they didn’t have enough people to put on the task absent any extra funding from Congress.
Congress unwisely put no deadline on the mandate in the 2005 legislation, then gave the Department a luxurious one year to produce it with the enactment of the latest December 2008 revision of the landmark 2000 anti-slavery act.
But the list exists. While I was still the anti-trafficking ambassador, a public hearing had been held for information and a draft list was fashioned.”
So what can be done to see that this list finally makes it’s way into our hands as consumers, and concerned citizens? e-mail the new Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis to release the list and correct the errors of the past four years, demand that the American consumer is both educated and empowered, that we have a right and choice to be purchase goods which are no longer contaminated by child and slave labor, that we want a true “free” marketplace.
Slavery taints consumer products such as clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, electronics, sports equipment, rugs, agricultural produce, sugar, tea, coffee, chocolate, and many other products. Often products, like clothing, may even be tainted at multiple points in the supply chain. For example children may have been used to pick the cotton of a shirt, while workers were held in situations of slavery and forced to sew the clothing. Slavery touches each one of us as a consumer, therefore as don’t waste anymore time you can begin to take a stand against child labor and work toward keeping slavery out of the supply chain and slavery tainted products off of the shelves and out of your home, today in just a few easy steps.
- Sign the petition to Tell the Department of Labor to release its list of goods tainted by slave labor
- Become a more conscious consumer and buy Fair Trade products. Amanda Kloer summed it up easily with her list of 7 Ways to Fight Slavery at the Grocery Store. You can also see the Fair Trade and Slave Free Links list, which has a number of resources and sites where you can learn more about, and purchase Fair Trade or slave free goods.
- Remember to recycle and reuse as much as possible, for not only does it help us reduce waste and maintain fight global warming, you can also help reduce the consumption of slavery tainted goods.
- Increase your knowledge check out some of the following resources;
By supporting companies who do not profit from labor servitude, you not only ensure that you are purchasing free and fair goods, but are one step closer to helping to end modern slavery. By purchasing Fair Trade, slavery free and survivor made products you are not only doing the ‘right thing’, but you can also use it as an opportunity to educate others, especially children, about human rights issues, such as child labor and modern slavery.
Comments
These jobs need to be brought back to the USA first of all. This is why the economy is in the toilet. We also need to get rid of our own slavery problem to the federal reserve and the federal government by property taxes and income taxes. The corporations outsourced the jobs to save money, did they pass those savings onto us? No, they pocketed the difference and used that money to lobby OUR representatives who used to work for these companies. You want to get rid of slavery? Start here in the US.
This is a great article, but what it doesn't say is that Human Trafficking is the largest growing criminal activity in the world. It is currently estimated by the UN that there are 27 Million people enslaved in the world today.
The people that are switching to Human Trafficking are mainly gun-runners and drug pushers.
They asked themselves "why sell a packet of drugs or a gun once, when you can sell a human being over and over again?"
No wonder it's the fastest growing criminal activity........
You can find out more where there are important links on my website and also learn more about my new book on the subject - svetna..... just google svetna....
John Stack
"The people that are switching to Human Trafficking are mainly gun-runners and drug pushers."
And the Israelis, they have been doing it for years, organ trafficking, human trafficking, and a whole bunch of em just got caught recently in NJ. In fact, they have been caught doing it to the palestinians, no wonder they have a problem with people trying to blow themselves up in their area, no one is doing anything about it because they are our "ally". Some aaly, they attacked us before, the only ones who seem to think they are our ally and keep sending our tax money to them are the dual citizens with them in congress!!
"It is currently estimated by the UN that there are 27 Million people enslaved in the world today."
The members in the UN have been implicated in this very subject, they will do nothing as it will damage their business, even China has gotten in on the fun with human and organ trafficking. When the leaderships are involved in this and the drug trade, you really think they will do anything about it besides make a dog and pony show about their competition?
I also remember reading an article on the UNs own website about how they wanted to own people, or make it legal for corporations to own people. Interesting hmm?
As long as the union busting robber barrons dictate free trade policies, there will always be slave labor exploited somewhere!
Free trade is a device to profit at the expense of cheap labor, nothing else. Our founding fathers were against it!
Go on u tube and key free trade to see the atrocities just for our "cheap' goods. Imagine the toll on the planet just to ship them here! Wasted fuel, pollution etc.
Unions are to help, NOT hurt as the elites want you to believe.
Check out the National Labor Committees June 2008 report on Japan's Prius factory that now will spread as we continue to be dazed by advertising dollars and the lobbyists.
In the future, we will all be happy for jobs at Wal-Mart!
"If free trade was so good for our standard of living then WHY has high union wage benefits paying GM been replaced by low nonunion wage benefits skirting Wal-Mart as our nation's largest enmployer?"-Barbara Toncheff
Think about your penny wise but pound foolish slave labor deals!
If things are this bad then something needs to get done about it we can't just sit here waiting for someone to do something!Thier not going to do it for us we have to make a stand!!!!
everyone says lets do something something has to be done about all this bad stuff but if they really cared about stopping everything bad thats going on then it would be done by now.We should have like a riot or something that would definately work!!!
the sad part is that even if u buy american u must realize that those kids that r working wont get paid eventually loosing there jobs. What we need is to create a new way to help these kids like funding a facility for thede kids getting them to the doctor and funding there education. By not purchasing there products those kids will starve to death. We need a better answer hit me up www.myspace.com/theuniverseisgod
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!