List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

There are reports of children working under conditions of forced labor to produce bricks in India's kilns. The most recently available information from a trade union report indicates that in the State of Haryana alone, as many as 40,000 children, many of them forced laborers, are working in brick kilns. Bonded labor in the brick industry is found across India, including in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. The kilns use a system of bonded labor in which children often work alongside other members of their debt-bonded families. Some of these children are forced to work as a guarantee for loans to their parents. Families take an advance payment from recruiters and then are forced to work to pay off the debt; the debt rolls over from one year to the next, binding the worker in a cycle of debt bondage. Children in scheduled castes, a socially disadvantaged class in India, and of migrant families, are particularly vulnerable to forced labor. Some children are forced to work under threat of physical violence. Some children and their families are not paid regularly, do not receive the promised wages, and are prohibited from leaving the worksite. 

Hindi translation

ILAB has reason to believe that cooking oil (palm oil blends) produced in India is produced with an input derived from child labor and forced labor, specifically palm fruit produced in Malaysia. Palm fruit from Malaysia was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2009 for forced labor and added in 2014 for child labor. Research from NGOs and media reports continue to show tens of thousands of children work in the palm fruit sector in Malaysia. Similar reporting shows forced labor indicators are widespread in palm fruit plantations, particularly among migrant workers who face vulnerabilities during and after recruitment. Malaysia processes its palm fruit into products including crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil, refined palm oil, and refined palm kernel oil, which it exports to the global supply chain. India imported over $3.43 billion in crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil from Malaysia in 2021, representing nearly half of the imports of these products into India. Cooking oil (palm oil blends) produced in India uses Malaysian palm oil, which is produced using forced labor and child labor. In 2022, crude palm oil from Malaysia accounted for 35% of global imports and refined palm oil from Malaysia represented 26% of global imports. This research suggests that further worldwide downstream products of palm fruit and palm oil, such as animal feed, baked goods, beverages, household and industrial products, personal care products, cosmetic products, infant formula, and shortening, may be produced with an input produced with child labor and forced labor.

There are reports that children, especially girls ages 6-14, are forced to produce hybrid cottonseed in India. Cottonseed production, and cottonseed farms with bonded child laborers, are reported to be concentrated in the state of Andhra Pradesh. According to NGO reports, between 400,000 and 450,000 children are working in the production of hybrid cottonseed, many working as forced or bonded labor. Some of these children are bonded to their employer, forced to work to pay off the debt of advanced payments made to their parents. Some children are forced to work with toxic pesticides. 

Hindi translation

There are reports of children, many between the ages of 8-14, producing embellished textiles under conditions of forced labor in India. Some children work under a system of debt bondage. Most factories that produce zari, a type of embroidery, are concentrated in Mumbai and Delhi, but many children are trafficked from other locations such as Bihar. According to government raids and an NGO report, between 125,000 and 210,000 children are working in Delhi embroidery workshops, and approximately 100,000 are working in zari embroidery and other textile embellishment workshops in Mumbai and elsewhere. Some children are forced to work under threat of physical violence. Some work long hours including overtime and do not receive payment for their work. 

Hindi translation