Children in the Ramanagaram silk worm India cocoon market, the largest in Asia. © 2002 Shalu Rozario Small Change Bonded Child Labor in India’s Silk Industry Millions of children in India toil as virtual slaves, unable to that cut their fingers. Children helping silk weavers sit at escape the work that leaves them impoverished, illiterate, and cramped looms in damp, dim rooms. They do not go to school often crippled by the time they reach adulthood. These are and are often beaten by their employers. India’s “bonded” child laborers. Bound to their employers in The Indian government knows about these children and has exchange for a loan to their families, they are unable to leave a mandate to free them. Instead, for reasons of apathy, caste while in debt and earn so little they may never be free. A majori- bias, and corruption, many government officials deny that they ty of them are Dalits, so-called “untouchables.” exist at all. Since Human Rights Watch’s first report on the issue At every stage of the silk industry, hundreds of thousands of in 1996, the Indian government has taken some affirmative children work as bonded laborers, twelve or more hours a day, steps to address the plight of working children and bonded six and a half or seven days a week. Children making silk thread laborers of all ages. The National Human Rights Commission’s dip their hands in boiling water that burns and blisters their involvement is especially positive. But the government is now hands. They breath smoke and fumes from machinery, handle backing away from enforcing its own law, claiming the problem dead worms that cause infections, and guide twisting threads is being solved. As this report documents, it is not. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH HUMAN 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor Small Change RIGHTS New York, NY 10118-3299 http://www.hrw.org Bonded Child Labor in India’s Silk Industry WATCH Cover Design by Rafael Jiménez Cover Photography by Shalu Rozario January 2003 Vol.15, No. 2 (C) HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INDIA Small Change Bonded Child Labor in India’s Silk Industry Table of Contents I. SUMMARY . .6 Poverty, Education and Caste . .9 India’s Legal Obligations . .10 Scope and Methodology . .11 II. RECOMMENDATIONS . .12 Recommendations to the Government of India . .12 Recommendations to State Governments . .14 Recommendations to the International Community . .14 Recommendations to Retailers, Suppliers, and Indian and International Consumers . .15 III. BACKGROUND . .16 Overview of Bonded Child Labor . .16 The Indian Silk Industry . .19 How Silk is Produced . .20 Government and International Support for the Indian Silk Industry . .20 Areas Covered by this Report . .22 Karnataka . .22 Uttar Pradesh . .23 Tamil Nadu . .24 IV. BONDED CHILD LABOR IN THE INDIAN SILK INDUSTRY . .25 Making Silk Thread—Reeling and Twisting . .25 Reeling . .25 Twisting . .25 Children’s Testimonies . .26 Structure of the Bondage in Silk Reeling and Twisting . .27 Working Conditions in Silk Reeling and Twisting . .27 Employer Abuse in Silk Reeling and Twisting . .28 Moriculture and Cocoon Raising . .29 Weaving Saris . .30 Children’s Testimonies . .31 Structure of the Bondage in Silk Weaving . .34 Work-Related Injuries in Silk Weaving . .35 Employer Abuse in Silk Weaving . .35 V. CASTE-BASED DISCRIMINATION AND BONDED LABOR . .41 VI. THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT’S ROLE . .45 Overview of the Two Systems: Bonded Labor and Child Labor . .45 Bonded Labor . .46 District, State, and National Responsibility for Bonded Labor . .46 Government Failure to Protect Children with the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 . .47 Data Collection about Bonded Labor . .50 Rehabilitation of Bonded Laborers . .51 Prosecutions and Convictions . .52 Child Labor . .53 Acknowledgment of the Child Labor Problem . .54 Enforcing the Child Labor Law . .56 Finding and Freeing Child Workers . .56 Prosecuting Violators . .57 Loopholes and Weaknesses in the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 . .59 Other Barriers to Enforcing the Child Labor Law . .61 Rehabilitation of Child Workers . .62 The National Child Labour Policy (NCLP) and the National Authority for the Elimination of Child Labour . .62 Other State-Level and Nongovernmental Initiatives to Address Child Labor . .64 Night Schools in Tamil Nadu . .65 Nongovernmental Programs . .66 Rehabilitation-Cum-Welfare Funds . .66 The National Human Rights Commission’s Work on Bonded Labor and Child Labor . .68 A Lack of Political Will . .70 Sympathy for and Pressure from Employers . .71 Corruption . .72 Caste Bias . .72 The Failure to Protect Bonded Children . .73 Education . .76 VII. LEGAL FRAMEWORK . ..