Rugmark

Rugmark is a global nonprofit organization working to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry and to offer educational opportunities to children in India and Nepal. Worldwide attention was drawn to the use of child labor in handmade rugs in the 1980s. Studies by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the U.S. Department of Labor and human rights groups revealed that the industry was illegally employing and exploiting large numbers of children. Even more shocking, many children were found to be victims of debt bondage or forced labor, practices specifically banned by the United Nations and the ILO and condemned as contemporary forms of slavery.

Since 1995 RugMark International has certified more than 5.5 million carpets as child-labor-free. The RugMark® label on the underside of the rug speaks to a sophisticated system of workplace monitoring, including surprise visits by inspectors to factories and village-based looms. This third-party certification program offers everyone in the supply chain – from producers to retailers to consumers – assurance that no illegal child labor was employed and their rug is beautiful both inside and out.

History

Responding to concern about violation of children’s rights during the eighties, human rights organizations in Europe and India, along with UNICEF-India and the Indo-German Export Promotion Council, a German government agency, developed the RugMark program to provide assurance to consumers that the oriental carpets they were purchasing were made by adults rather than exploited children, and to provide for the long term educational and rehabilitation of children found working illegally on looms. Rugmark was formally launched in India in the fall of 1994.

Rugmark expanded into Nepal in 1996. Thereafter, negotiations with Rugmark programs in Germany, Nepal, India, and the U.S. resulted in the formal creation of Rugmark International. An international constitution was adopted in May 1998.

Today the international RUGMARK network is comprised of producing countries offices in India and Nepal and consumer country offices in the US, UK, and Germany. RugMark Germany and RugMark UK are currently responsible for Licensing throughout Europe while RugMark USA is responsible for Licensing throughout North America.

Child Labor Problem

According to the International Labour Organization, more than 200 million children in the world today are involved in child labor, doing work that is damaging to his or her mental, physical and emotional development. Children work because their survival and that of their families depend on it. Child labor persists even where it has been declared illegal, and is frequently surrounded by a wall of silence, indifference, and apathy. Nearly three-quarters of working children are engaged in the worst forms of child labor, including trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work. About 300,000 under-age children are employed in the hand-woven rug industries of India, Nepal and Pakistan. The effective abolition of child labor is one of the most urgent challenges of our time.

How RugMark Works

The RugMark labeling initiative operates through a network of licensed rug exporters and importers. All licensed exporters and importers are charged a license fee for the use of the RugMark labels, and the fees generated are used to fund the system of random inspections and welfare, education and rehabilitation projects.

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RugMark producer country offices establish license agreements with exporters. They agree to the following terms:
• not to illegally employ children
• to allow unannounced, random inspections by RugMark inspectors
• to pay fair adult wages
• to notify RugMark of all sales of labeled carpets

RugMark's trained inspection teams carry out random unannounced inspections of village looms and factories to make sure that the conditions of the license agreement are being adhered to.

Each exported rug is individually numbered, enabling its origin to be traced back to the loom where it was produced. This prevents counterfeit labeling.

RugMark labeled rugs can only be imported by companies who have signed a license agreement with one of the importer country offices (Germany, UK, USA). The rugs are then sold on to retailers, or sold directly to interior designers, architects and end consumers through high-end showrooms.

On the Ground - RugMark in India and Nepal

The traditional rug weaving area of India is concentrated around the carpet belt near Varanasi. The carpet belt spans an area between Varanasi, Bhadohi, and Mirzapur. The vast majority of rug production in this area takes place using traditional hand knotting skills in small loom sheds, or village homes. Many of the village weavers work seasonally, combining rug weaving with agriculture. The RugMark inspection team is based in Gopiganj in the heart of the carpet belt. The inspectors travel by motorcycle so that they can carry out loom inspections in remote villages.

In recent years, rug production in India has become more industrialized, moving away from the villages to factory-based production in an area north of Delhi called Panipat. This has created a migration of workers from the villages and away from the traditional looms. The factories can vary in size between 60 and 3,000 employees. Smaller rug producing areas include Agra and Chennai.

If any children are found working illegally, they are removed and either reunited with their families or taken to live at the RugMark rehabilitation centre where they receive education and vocational training.

RugMark India also places importance on adult education, RugMark started Adult Education Centers for adult weavers near their work place and in the schools. At present, 180 adult weavers are studying in the Adult Education Centers.

In Nepal, where 7.75 million live on less than $1 a day and 31% of the population lives below the poverty line, the rug manufacturing industry is vital to the economy, employing approximately 100,000 people and generating much needed foreign income.

Rug production in Nepal is centered around the Kathmandu Valley, usually in small factories. Rug weaving is typically carried out by women, and many rural people have migrated to the city to find alternative employment. Rug factories often provide accommodation to workers and their families.

Nepal RugMark is based in Kathmandu. Nepal RugMark Foundation works to ensure that the beautiful rugs made in Nepal are manufactured in an ethical way. The team there has partnered with local NGOs to provide a rehabilitation centre, and several pre-school day centers for the children of parents employed in rug weaving. These day care centers provide a safe and healthy environment away from the weaving sheds where children can play and learn together.

Nepal RugMark has worked hard to address the child labor problem in Nepal and provide a meaningful alternative for the rug children. So far, approximately 1,721 children have been removed from rug factories, and almost 800 of those have been enrolled in RugMark rehabilitation programs and over 650 have been reunited with their families.Central to Nepal RugMark‘s work is the Rehabilitation Program. The children who are rescued and who cannot be reunited with their families are offered the opportunity to live at the rehabilitation centre, and receive informal, but intensive classes that bring them up to speed with their education. Following this, they continue with a formal education and re-union with their families is further investigated.

Once formal education has been completed, the children can then continue with higher level education, or go onto vocational training such as carpentry, sewing and auto-mechanics.Nepal RugMark has also partnered with several local NGOs to provide several pre-school day centers for the children of parents employed in rug weaving. These day care centers provide a safe and healthy environment away from the weaving sheds where children can play and learn together.

Nepal RugMark’s Community Based Rehabilitation and Re-integration of Children is for children who have been re-united with their families right from the beginning. When children have been reunited with their families, RugMark provides financial support for the children's continued education. Community based rehabilitation ensures the children have an emotional attachment with their families and is a cost-effective Rehabilitation program.

Many of the adult weavers migrate to Kathmandu from remote farming villages where they have received no education. RugMark therefore runs adult literacy classes and Awareness Programs for Adults, teaching them about such things as the basics of sex education, the problem of child trafficking and health, nutrition and sanitation.

In the Market - RugMark at the Point of Sale

RugMark USA and RugMark UK educate consumers about rugs and carpets produced without the use of child labor, invite interior designers to recommend child-labor-free rugs for their clients, ask retailers to carry RugMark rugs, and encourage importers to seek independent certification utilizing a variety of initiatives.

To fulfill its goals, RugMark USA developed a “How to Buy a Rug Guide” and launched The Most Beautiful Rug Campaign in 2006. The campaign aims to increase the market share of certified rugs by educating end consumers and those who influence rug purchases – interior designers, architects, retailers and importers. ‎RugMark USA also certified more than 40 importers and 1000 retail outlets across the country. To become certified, carpet and rug manufacturers sign a legally binding contract to produce carpets without illegal child labor and register all looms in India and Nepal that will be continuously inspected. Some of the certified companies in the US include Lapchi, the Company C, The Rug Company, Odegard, The Rug Studio and others. The goal is to build a market valued at $75 million, or 15% of total handmade rug imports in the next decade. This will wipe out child labor on an industrywide basis.

RugMark UK runs a design-a-rug competition to raise awareness about responsible production methods. The competition is open to students aged 16 winners receive a one week trip to Kathmandu to see their rugs being hand loomed.

RugMark in the News

“Until recently, it would have been easy to claim ignorance about the pervasive and mostly hidden use of abusive child labor in the handmade carpet business… No longer. A growing number of designers, importers and retail outlets… have linked up with RugMark.”
The San Francisco Chronicle

“Our consumers care about social responsibility and [avoiding] child labor practices… Company C will actively use the RugMark label and support the visibility of this organization.”Walter Chapin, Company C as quoted in Home Furnishing News

“We are living in a generation of solutions. RugMark is a solution and has proven exploitative child labor can be ended.”Charles Lyons, President, U.S. Fund for UNICEF

“The goal is not just getting kids off the looms but turning their lives around as well.”Avner Lapovsky of Sloan Miyasato, RugMark Marketing Partner, as quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle.

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.rugmark.org/home.php Rugmark's web site]
* [http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/lr/2003/04/06/stories/2003040600170300.htm Review of Mark Tully's book "India in Slow Motion" ]
* [http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2002/11/17/story609284528.asp Another review of "India in Slow Motion" by Mark Tully and Gillian Wright ]