List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

There are reports that men and women working in the production of tea are subjected to forced and bonded labor in India. Evidence of forced and bonded labor has been found in the Assam state. Workers experience non-payment and under payment of wages and withholding of benefits, as well as threats of the same. In addition, sources indicate that workers are not provided access to adequate housing, basic healthcare, and water. While employers are legally required to provide food and medical care, workers are not provided with these services and must borrow money from their employer at high interest rates; workers are also sometimes charged for services they do not receive. This has led to conditions of debt bondage. A smaller number of workers are subjected to forced labor through physical and sexual violence, verbal abuse, and threats of violence and dismissal.

There are reports that forced labor conditions are prevalent among workers in the thread and yarn sector in India. In particular, workers in spinning mills in the state of Tamil Nadu are often recruited using deception about working conditions and wages. Sources indicate conditions of excessive and involuntary overtime, debt bondage, withholding of identity records, and restrictions on free movement of workers.

There are reports of children working under conditions of forced labor in rice mills in India, particularly in Tamil Nadu. These children are forced to work producing rice through a system of bonded labor, often working with their families. Children of the lower castes, socially disadvantaged classes in India, are particularly vulnerable. According to an ILO study, over 1,000 families work in bonded labor in rice mills in one district of Tamil Nadu. Families take an advance payment from recruiters and then are forced to work to pay off the debt. Some children face harassment and restrictions on their movement from mill personnel. 

Hindi translation

There are reports that children ages 6 to 17 produce sandstone in India.  In Rajasthan, which produces 90 percent of India’s sandstone, boys and girls as young as age 6 or 7 work chiseling sandstone cobblestones, and boys ages 13 to 17 quarry sandstone.  Children from migrant families or children belonging to scheduled castes, a socially disadvantaged group in India, are particularly vulnerable to child labor in producing sandstone.  Based on estimates from international organizations, NGOs, and academic researchers, thousands of children work in Rajasthan’s sandstone quarries.  Children working in the quarries are rarely given protective equipment such as goggles or masks, and are exposed to hazards including severe injury from stone chips; hearing loss from drilling and blasting noise; extreme heat; and inhalation of silica dust, which can lead to chronic lung disease and death.  Some children also work at night or operate dangerous equipment.

There are reports that adult workers are forced to work in the production of sandstone in India.  Migrant workers and individuals from scheduled castes, a socially disadvantaged group in India, are especially vulnerable to forced labor in sandstone quarries.  According to international organizations, NGOs, and academic researchers, incidents of forced labor and debt bondage are widespread in sandstone quarries in Rajasthan, which is the source of 90 percent of India’s sandstone.  Migrant and marginalized workers are lured to the quarries with the promise of well-paying jobs, only to work in dangerous conditions for pay at a daily or per piece rate that is too low to manage basic expenses.  Sandstone quarry workers are highly vulnerable to silicosis, a fatal lung disease caused by breathing the dust produced by drilling or breaking quartz-rich rocks.  In many cases, quarry owners give workers advances and loans to pay for growing household and medical expenses related to silicosis.  Quarry owners withhold workers’ wages as repayment for this debt, which in turn continuously accumulates due to compound interest and additional expenses.  Employers record attendance informally and rarely issue written accounts of debt owed, enabling quarry owners to deduct money from the workers’ wages and inflate debts.  When an indebted worker grows too ill to work or dies, this debt is transferred to his or her family, who must forfeit property or themselves labor in the quarry to pay off the debt.

Hindi Translation

There are multiple reports that adults are forced to work in the production of nickel in Indonesia. Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves, with approximately 23.7% of the world’s known deposits. Large industrial parks are built as part of the Government of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to process nickel ore in Central and Southeast Sulawesi. Chinese companies have a majority ownership of these parks. The industrial parks employ an estimated 6,000 Chinese migrant workers in various capacities. According to NGO reports, workers are often deceptively recruited in China. After they arrive in Indonesia, many workers receive a lower wage than promised along with longer work hours. Workers regularly have passports confiscated by employers and experience arbitrary deduction of wages, as well as physical and verbal violence as means of punishment. Other indicators of forced labor in the parks include restriction of movement, isolation, constant surveillance, and forced overtime; all of which are reportedly common practices in the production of nickel in the industrial parks.

Indonesian Translation

ILAB has reason to believe that multiple palm oil products produced in Indonesia are made with an input using child labor and forced labor, specifically palm fruit harvested in Indonesia. These palm oil products include crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil, refined palm oil, refined palm kernel oil, and oleochemicals.

Palm Fruit from Indonesia was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2010 for child labor and added in 2020 for forced labor. Indonesia produces most of the world’s palm fruit and palm oil. In 2020, refined palm oil from Indonesia accounted for 55.26 percent of global imports. In 2020, the U.S. obtained about 60 percent of its $1 billion in refined palm oil imports from Indonesia.

This research suggests that further downstream products of palm fruit and palm oil, such as cooking oils, animal feed, bakery items and baked goods, beverages, household and industrial products, personal care and cosmetic products, infant formula, and biofuels, may be produced with an input produced with child labor and forced labor.

There are reports that children ages 5 to 17 work in tin mining in Indonesia. Child labor in this sector is concentrated in the tin-producing islands of Bangka-Belitung province, in ASM. According to a 2014 ILO sectoral survey on child labor in informal tin mining, published in 2015, an estimated 6,300 children are engaged in child labor in tin mining. Children work at dangerous heights and in deep, slippery pits where there are high risks of landslides and injuries. Children’s tasks include operating pressurized-water machinery to separate tin from other materials, digging in the earth to find tin deposits, and panning for tin in bodies of water where children are exposed to extreme weather conditions and are at risk of drowning.