List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

There are reports that children ages 5 to 17 are engaged in collecting mica from abandoned mines, primarily in illegal mining operations in India. Children are primarily found mining in the major mica-producing states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan, often in lieu of attending school. NGOs and media sources have documented hundreds of children working in mica across these states. Children’s tasks reportedly include breaking apart rocks to mine the minerals, carrying loads of rocks, and sorting and separating mica from other mined minerals. According to media reports and interviews, children’s inhalation of mica dust has contributed to respiratory health issues. Children also reportedly experience other health and safety hazards, resulting in injuries such as scorpion bites and broken bones, or in some cases, even death in poorly-maintained and unregulated mineshafts. 

Hindi Translation

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