US lists 21 Indian items for using child labor

October 2, 2012: The US labor department has issued a list of 21 Indian-made products that use child or forced labor. Made-in-India garments and embellished textiles are among the top products in the list with the department saying that there is "evidence of labor abuses in a variety of different forms of textile embellishment, beyond the production of zari."

Although manufacturers of the two items had petitioned for their deletion from the list, the report released late last week has refused to do so. While there are no estimates of the level of child labor involved, the list covers several textile products from yarn to fabrics and garments.

It also includes carpets, brassware, incense sticks, stones, locks, fireworks and rice. In its annual listings for 2012, the US labour department said it is estimated that at least 57,000 children aged between five and 17 years are working in the carpet industry in India, Pakistan and Nepal.

An International Labour Organization report had said that at least 55 per cent of the forced labor was in south Asia. It listed seven cases where there were instances of forced labor, which included bricks, carpets, hybrid cottonseed, embellished textiles, garment, rice and stones.

Globally, production of cotton, sugarcane and coffee has seen maximum instances of use of child labor. For the last four years, the department has been releasing an annual list of goods manufactured in foreign countries, often seen as a form of non-trade barrier to exports, which now covers 134 items.