Persian Carpet Child Labor
Care fair also help combat illegal child labor and improve the lives of weavers and their families in the carpet producing areas of india and pakistan.
Persian carpet child labor. We turned to india s best designers to create an indigenous indian design language for carpets otherwise dominated by persian and chinese motifs. One of the sad and enduring myths of the rug business is that fine rugs are made by children whose little fingers can tie tiny knots. In return iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt. Find child labor free rugs at goodweave.
Child labour in the industry the study also aims at mapping out supply chain linkages between indian carpet producers who use child labour and us importers who import carpets from these producers. Here are a few things we learned about while studying persian rugs. With your business at kismet fine rugs you are helping with the elimination of child labor in the rug weaving industry. Search many rug sellers and makers to find the custom area and outdoor rugs.
Symmetry the types of designs geometric curvilinear pictorial the elements of a rug border central medallion repeated motifs child labor laws how to value a rug based on knot count the difference between natural fibers and manmade fibers and more. Iqbal masih was born in 1983 in muridke a commercial city outside of lahore in punjab pakistan into a poor christian family. Carpet manufacturers and the carpet export industry in pakistan as well as carpet importers and retailers in the usa and other western countries have announced that child labor no longer exists in the carpet weaving industry. 3 a study published by cepc in 1998 claims child labour account for only less than one present to the total workforce in carpet industry 0 93.
Kismet fine rugs is also a proud sponsor of care fair. Making a watch escapement by hand would be an impossible task for a child. The goodweave label means that no child labour was used in the making of the carpet. In fact precisely the opposite is true.
The surest way to avoid a rug made with bonded labor is to buy a medium or better quality rug. Most of the famous weavers through history have been men and some women much like the most renowned watchmakers in 19th century europe were adult men. Iqbal s family borrowed 600 rupees less than us 12 00 from a local employer who owned a carpet weaving business. If a rug maker decides to cut corners on the quality of the wool the dyes or the weave of a rug he is much more likely to try to find bonded labor to make the rug.
At age four he was put to work by his family to pay off their debts.