Carpet Slaves

When you think about human trafficking, you might think about prostitution, forced labor in restaurants and in homes but, you might not think that the carpet industry would have forced labor, but it does. Many of the oriental rugs and carpets that are made are made by children who have been forced to make rugs for free or to make them for little pay. Some companies such as RugMark are trying to stop this exploitation. The U.S. trade companies should stop buying and selling rugs and carpets without the RugMark tag because U.S. consumers are uninformed about how the rugs and carpets are made and by whom.

The carpet export industry is one of the largest earners in exports for Pakistan, India, Morocco and Nepal. According to the South Asian Coalition on Children Servitude, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are involved in the carpet industry. (Anti-Slavery Society) But, for many years the carpet industry has claimed that "nimble fingers of the children are essential to form the intricate designs used in the carpets."(Anti-Slavery Society) Although the carpet industry has made this claim it has been discredited, the low to middle grade carpets are made by children and the more expensive ones are made by adults. In the carpet industry the rugs and carpets aren't always made in a big factories, they are made in small villages by people who own their own looms and the children who make the carpets are often the loom owner's own children. Children are also secured by human traffickers from poor regions of the countries. The carpet industry says that the two main advantages to using children is that they have good sight which helps them see the intricate designs in the poor lights and that they adapt to the poor working conditions along with poor wages. Although these may be seen by the companies as advantages, they are in reality disadvantages because the children's eyesight is damaged, and they can develop lung diseases from breathing in all the wool used for making the rugs. The children who make these carpets are either forced to or are paid little wages. They are separated from their families to be beaten or locked up. They are paid little wages which are made less by the factory owners for "food and boarding" or whatever the loom masters believe the children have to pay (Anti-Slavery Society). This is no way for a child to live. These children should be going to school and playing outside with their friends, and as longs as consumers are unaware of this situation, it will keep going. But, there is one company that is trying to stop carpet slavery, RugMark.


The RugMark Foundation was founded in 1994 by many non-government businesses, organizations, government entities and multilateral groups such as UNICEF (RugMark). The idea for RugMark was started by Kailash Satyarthi in 1980. Satyarthi had been liberating children from carpet factories. Although he was saving some, more would eventually end up at the factories to replace the ones who were gone. RugMark is a company that gives certified looms to other rug and carpet companies. These companies have to sign a legally binding contract. This contract states that manufactures have to "produce carpets without illegal child labor, register all loom with the RugMark Foundation, allow access to looms for unannounced inspections and pay associated license fees" (RugMark). RugMark Foundation not only makes rugs and carpets but they help the rescued children. They have educational programs that are funded by the sales of RugMark rugs and by donations. These educational programs help rehabilitate children, they also provide daycare, literacy, formal schooling and vocational training. RugMark also tries to help the children find their families. The children have some choices for the schooling, they can go to a RugMark boarding school or can live at home and go to a public or private school with support from RugMark. These educational programs are designed to help the children receive numeracy and literacy training, and prepares them for a formal education (RugMark). RugMark is working hard to change the carpet industry, and it is working.

No one wants to know that children are making the things they are walking on but many of them don't know that children are. RugMark is helping consumers become more aware. As people become more aware of the carpet industry situation more and more consumers are wanting RugMark rugs and carpets. Up to 23% of U.S. consumers are wanting socially responsible products (RugMark). In other words more adults are asking where products come from and who they are made before they buy them. Because the consumers are wanting socially responsible products, isn't in the best interest of the companies to make products that consumers want? By meeting the demands of the consumers the companies are showing that they care not just about their business but the life of others.


"Children in the Carpet Industry." Fighting Slavery Today. Anti-Slavery Society. 12 Dec. 2008 http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/carpets.htm.

RugMark Foundation. 12 Dec. 2008 http://www.rugmark.org/home.php.

Annotated Bibliographies

1. Love146. 2008. Love146. 17 October 2008.

This website is dedicated to helping those who have been trafficked and those who have been forced into sex. They are trying to set up sanctuaries or safe houses for women and child who have been forced into prostitution are forced into labor.

Love146 is a very useful source because they are a very well know organization.

This source is great for someone who wants to help people who have been trafficked. It was also useful because it is very relevant to my topic of Human trafficking. Love146 is a great site to visit if your want to find out more about forced prostitution.


2.Eaton-Robb, Pat. "Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads." The Washington Post 7 Nov. 2008.

This source was an article in the Washington Post that talked about how on Craigslist (an Internet site used for personal and business advertising) was brought to court because there were many ads for "erotic services" that turned out to be illegal. eventually Craigslist agreed to ask for legitimate credit cards and working phone numbers.

This source is very reliable because it was in the Washington Post. This is a different kind of source from the other ones in my blog because it takes place today and it also shows us that there are many different ways to advertise prostitution.

The article really shows me that human trafficking is everywhere even in plan site. But it also shows that there are people how are really trying to fix or help stop human trafficking.


3.http://web.mac.com/thefreedomproject/The_Freedom_Project/Stats.html

This site was used for its Statistics. It has really great graphs that show many different things. For example it shows who gets trafficked the most and from where and it also shows what the victims are trafficked for. This site also has a graph on what nationality the traffickers are.

The graphs offer great data for those who don't know a whole lot about who gets trafficked or why. This was a great source because it gives you a visual look at the statistics instead of just reading about them. You can actually see the difference in who gets trafficked and for what.

This was a very helpful source because it really put into prospective for me how many people get trafficked. It really didn't change how I think about my topic, it more really helped prove that Human trafficking is a major problem.


4.iAbolish. American Anti-Slavery Group. 19 Sept. 2008 http://www.iabolish.org/.


iAbolish is all about stopping human trafficking and modern day slavery. They want people to be aware of human trafficking. On the site they have news and events. They also have definitions of what human trafficking and slavery are.

This is a great site to visit if you don't really know what human trafficking and slavery are. It is also great if you what to help or if you want to donate money or you services.

This was a good source for me because it helped me really understand what human trafficking was and how badly it effects people. I was also good because it is really focused on stopping it and getting people aware.


5.Humantrafficking.org. 2001-2006. Academy for Education Development. 17 October 2008

This site is a little different from the others because it tells you the human trafficking situation in different countries in East Asia and the Pacific. Under each country there are different things. They talk about the government of each country and what that government is doing about human trafficking. It also talks about how each country protects the victims and the punishment to the traffickers.

The goal of this source it to show individually how each country handles human trafficking. This was a useful source because it can you information on a specific country.

This site was really good to my topic because I could compare the different countries and see how if how the way the handle human trafficking was different or the same. And by comparing the countries one can see who needs more help in helping victims of human trafficking.


6.Unknown. "Human Trafficking." Issues and Controversies (2004): 297-304.

This article talks about how the United States is helping in stopping human trafficking. It also has a section of little stories of victims and how they got fooled and then were trafficked. It also has a section on the history of Anti trafficking efforts.

This was useful source because it was from 2004 and it helped me compare more recent source to it to see if efforts to stop human trafficking have grown or if the degenerated.

Because it was my first source of this blog it helped me grasp the idea of human trafficking. It also helped me in deciding on how my topic should go.