Child labour in the diamond industry is a widely reported and criticized issue on diamond industry for using child labour in diamond mines and polishing procedures in poor conditions mainly in India and Africa. In these mines, children come in contact with minerals, oil and machinery exhaust. [1] In 1997, The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions claimed that child labour was prospering in the diamond industry in Western India, where the majority of the world's diamonds are cut and polished while workers are often paid only a fraction of 1% of the value of the stones they cut. [2] It is argued that economic growth in Western India in the 1980s–90s was associated with an increase in the number of child workers who do simple, repetitive manual tasks that do not require long years of training or experience in low-paying hazardous working conditions that involve drudgery, and foreclose the option of school education for most of them. [3]
There are organizations and people who try to create a public awareness about the issue, including Janine Roberts, The Anti-Slavery Society, Survival International, IndianNGO, Child Labour News Service (CLNS) managed by the global march against child labor, and IHS Child Slave Labor News.
The United Nations declared 2021 as the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour. [4]
In 1997, the International Labour Organization published a report titled Child Labour in the Diamond Industry [5] claiming that child labour is highly prevalent in the Indian diamond industry. Child labourers constitute nearly 3% of the total workforce and the percentage of child labourers is as high as 25% in the diamond industry of Surat. The ICFTU further claimed that child labour was prospering in the diamond industry in western India, where the majority of the world's diamonds are cut and polished. Workers are often paid only a fraction of 1% of the value of the stones they cut. [2]
Pravin Nanavati, a Surat-based diamond businessman argued that, since high cost diamonds could easily be lost or broken while cutting or polishing, employing a child labourer would mean risking "lakhs of rupees." Some western countries have called for a boycott against the diamond industry for establishing a monopoly in the sector[ citation needed ]. Mohan Dhabuwala, secretary of The South Gujarat Diamond Workers Association, argued that while child labour is highly prevalent in the construction and hotel industries, there are few child labourers in the diamond industry of Surat, less than 1% according to their surveys, mainly because of stern punishments and penalties for violation of child labour laws. [6]
In 1998, Madhura Swaminathan from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research argued that economic growth in western India had been associated with an increase in the number of child workers over the previous 15 years and that children worked at simple repetitive manual tasks in low-paying hazardous jobs, foreclosing the option of school education. [3]
In 2005, an India-based management consultancy firm, A. F. Ferguson & Co., commissioned a study titled Child Labour from the Gem and Jewellery Industry "to spread awareness about child labour among the people connected with the industry". They studied 663 manufacturing units at 21 different locations in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, as an initiative of the Gem & Jewelry Export Promotion Council. On 12 February, the study was presented at a seminar held by the GJEPC and the Surat Diamond Association, in Surat, India. The report argued that the use of child labour in India's diamond processing industry has been reduced from 0.55% in 1998 to 0.31% in 2005, "while for the synthetic stone industry it is estimated to be two-thirds less".
GJEPC chairman Bakul Mehta claimed that, "some 500 diamond factory owners took an oath in the city of Palanpur, Gujarat, (home town of leading Gujarati diamond merchants) not to employ children in their factories. Similarly, in Surat, 200 factory owners took the oath," and that GJEPC "remain committed to eradicating child labour from the Indian diamond industry". He argued that "...the gem and jewelry industry cannot even think of employing children, not only for moral reasons, but that a child could be injured while polishing or cutting the diamonds." [7] [8] [9]
On 28 August 2003, BBC News reported that during the 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone children were used as combatants and child labourers in the diamond mines of Koidu in the north-eastern district of Kono. Children aged between 5 and 16 were used in hard labour, for ten hours a day, "digging in soil and gravel, before sifting with a pan for gemstones and shifting heavy mud believed to contain diamonds." In collaboration with World Vision and Aim Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs registered 1,200 child miners to get them out of the mines. [10]
On 26 June 2009, Human Rights Watch published a 62-page report titled Diamonds in the Rough. Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe, [11] based on its researchers' "more than 100 one-on-one interviews with witnesses, local miners, police officers, soldiers, local community leaders, victims and relatives, medical staff, human rights lawyers, and activists in Harare, Mutare, and Marange district in eastern Zimbabwe", conducted in February 2009.
According to the report, "following the discovery of diamonds in Marange in June 2006, the police and army have used brutal force to control access to the diamond fields and to take over unlicensed diamond mining and trading. Some income from the fields has been funnelled to high-level party members of ZANU-PF, which is now part of a power-sharing government that urgently needs revenue as the country faces a dire economic crisis." According to the report, some children work up to eleven hours per day with no pay, and by the estimate of a local lawyer, up to 300 children continue to work for soldiers in the Marange diamond fields. [12]
In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor that mentioned Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as part of the 74 countries with significant incidence of child labor and forced labor as far as the diamond industry is concerned. [13]
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Child Slave Labor News argued that it is reported that in the late 1980s, about 11% and in 1994, 16% of the workforce was underage in diamond industry. "Currently[ clarification needed ] there are over 171 million children that work in hazardous work sites such as factories and mines." [1]
CSLN further argued the diamond mines are dangerous work sites, "open pits of heavy minerals, oil, machinery exhaust, and any other rubbish seeps into". It is reported that diamond miners are exposed health risks and hazards, including malaria, dysentery, cholera and sexual diseases. [14] In addition to those diseases, child labourers who are subjected to working in poor conditions including overcrowding, abuse, long work hours and cheap pay in diamond mines suffer from eye strain, headaches, malnutrition, and respiratory problems. While they are paid for how many diamonds they can polish or cut per day. The ordinary amount of money a worker will get for polishing the uppermost section of a diamond is two rupees, which is below eight US cents, while workers who make smaller diamonds, might be paid 15 to 20 US dollars per week. Child slaves in Surat sleep in their workplace or in a small hovel instead of a home. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has claimed that child labour was prospering in the diamond industry in Western India, where the majority of the world's diamonds are cut and polished while workers are often paid only a fraction of 1% of the value of the stones they cut in 1997. [2]
Child workers are used as slaves since business owners exploit them as cheap employment to raise more profit and diamond industry is "an infamous venue of exploitation towards youth workers" like mines and sweatshops in South Africa or India while the diamond is overpriced and funded for wars. The majority of the third world country families are poor therefore rely on their children's income to survive. Additionally since most children do not have the opportunity to gain an education from their local school system, working at a sweatshop is their only option in life. [3] [1] In other instances, employers pays the family in advance and in turn, the child works to pay off the debt, which is called bonding, yet bonded children cannot pay their family's debt because of interest. With the increase in owed money, bonded children are forced into a life of servitude which will pass onto their descendants.
On the other hand, Civil wars usually shut down all government services. Countries like Sierra Leone, which depend on diamonds for much of its economic activity, not only face disruption in production (which reduces the supply), but also a thriving black market in conflict diamonds, which drives down the price for what diamonds are produced.
When mines are located on the land indigenous people including children, they had to be moved to a different area to construct a mine to collect gems. [1] In Botswana, a long dispute has existed between the interests of the mining company, De Beers, and the relocation of the Bushman tribe from the land to explore diamond resources. The Bushmen have been facing threats from government policies since at least 1980, when the diamond resources were discovered. [15] A campaign is being fought in an attempt to bring an end to what Survival International considers to be a "genocide" of a tribe that has been living in those lands for tens of thousands of years. [16] [17] [18] On the grounds that their hunting and gathering has become "obsolete" and their presence is no longer compatible with "preserving wildlife resources", they were persecuted by the government to make them leave the reserve. To get rid of them, they have had their water supplies cut off, they have been taxed, fined, beaten and tortured. [19] Several international supermodels, including Iman, Lily Cole and Erin O'Connor, who were previously involved with advertising for the companies' diamonds, have backed down after realizing the consequences raised by this scandal, and now support the campaign. [20] De Beers sold its Botswana mine to Gem Diamonds in 2007. [21]
On 4 July 2005 American rap star Kanye West, released a song titled Diamonds from Sierra Leone as the lead single of his second studio album, Late Registration , [22] containing a repeated sample of the theme song for the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever as performed by Shirley Bassey. [23] The song is revealing the hard life of child workers in Sierra Leone, like other West African nations who since 1991 having been forced to mine conflict diamonds and die in civil wars financed by them: "Good Morning! This ain't Vietnam. Still, people lose hands, legs, arms for real/Little was known of Sierra Leone, and how it connect to the diamonds we own...". [24] The music video was directed by Hype Williams and shot entirely in black-and-white in Prague, [25] featuring visuals of young African children toiling away in mines under the careful watch of their wardens with juxtaposed with scenes of wealthy Westerners shopping in boutiques and trying on jewellery.
The song peaked at number forty-three on the Billboard Hot 100, was moderately successful on the iTunes music service, and peaked in the eight spot on the UK Top 40. It won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Song at the 48th Grammy Awards.
Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation worldwide, although these laws do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training, and some forms of work undertaken by Amish children, as well as by Indigenous children in the Americas.
Blood diamonds are diamonds mined in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, an invading army's war efforts, terrorism, or a warlord's activity. The term is used to highlight the negative consequences of the diamond trade in certain areas, or to label an individual diamond as having come from such an area. Diamonds mined during the 20th–21st century civil wars in Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau have been given the label. The terms conflict resource or conflict minerals refers to analogous situations involving other natural resources. Blood diamonds can also be smuggled by organized crime syndicates so that they could be sold on the black market.
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel group that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, beginning in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later transformed into a political party, which still exists today. The three most senior surviving leaders, Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao, were convicted in February 2009 of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Sierra Leonean Civil War (1991–2002) was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted almost 11 years, and had over 50,000, up to 70,000, casualties in total; an estimated 2.5 million people were displaced during the conflict, and widespread atrocities occurred.
"Diamonds from Sierra Leone" is a song by American rapper Kanye West from his second studio album, Late Registration (2005). The song was produced by West, Jon Brion, and Devo Springsteen. The producers, with the exception of Brion, are credited as songwriters alongside John Barry and Don Black, who both received credit due to their composition being sampled. The song was initially centered around the demise of Roc-A-Fella Records, though was later re-recorded once West learned about blood diamonds in Sierra Leone. West premiered the song for Hot 97 on April 20, 2005, before it was sent to US mainstream radio stations the following month as the album's lead single, through Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam. In the chorus, West interpolated the phrase "forever ever, forever ever" from OutKast's "Ms. Jackson".
Martin Rapaport is the chairman of the Rapaport Group and founder of the Rapaport Diamond Report and RapNet, an online diamond trading network. Known for his influential role in the diamond industry, Rapaport has been both a pioneer and a controversial figure, advocating for price transparency, ethical sourcing, and the commoditization of diamonds. His work extends beyond market analysis to include contributions to addressing conflict diamonds, promoting Fair Trade practices, and engaging with non-governmental organizations on industry ethics.
Labour in India refers to employment in the economy of India. In 2020, there were around 476.67 million workers in India, the second largest after China. Out of which, agriculture industry consist of 41.19%, industry sector consist of 26.18% and service sector consist 32.33% of total labour force. Of these over 94 percent work in unincorporated, unorganised enterprises ranging from pushcart vendors to home-based diamond and gem polishing operations. The organised sector includes workers employed by the government, state-owned enterprises and private sector enterprises. In 2008, the organised sector employed 27.5 million workers, of which 17.3 million worked for government or government owned entities.
The mining industry of Botswana has dominated the national economy of Botswana since the 1970s, being a primary sector industry. Diamond has been the leading component of the mineral sector ever since production of gems started being extracted by the mining company Debswana. Most of Botswana's diamond production is of gem quality, resulting in the country's position as the world's leading producer of diamond by value. Copper, gold, nickel, coal and soda ash production also has held significant, though smaller, roles in the economy.
A significant proportion of children in India are engaged in child labour. In 2011, the national census of India found that the total number of child labourers, aged [5–14], to be at 10.12 million, out of the total of 259.64 million children in that age group. The child labour problem is not unique to India; worldwide, about 217 million children work, many full-time.
Mike Botha is a South African Canadian diamond cutter.
Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) is the world's largest diamond bourse (exchange) and is located in Mumbai, India. Spread over a 8.1-hectare (20-acre) plot, the complex is home to some 2,500 small and large diamond traders in addition to the Custom House, banks and other service providers who cater to the gems and jewelry trade. The complex contains 26 towers each having nine floors. The total constructed area is 190,000 m2 (2,000,000 sq ft), with two basements of additional 93,000 m2 (1,000,000 sq ft). The facilities at BDB comprise offices of diamond traders, four walk-in vaults, 24,500 safe deposit boxes, a 580-square-metre (6,200 sq ft) trading floor, strong rooms, lockers and customs clearance facilities with all the modern facilities required to carry on day-to-day business.
The mining industry of Sierra Leone accounted for 4.5 percent of the country's GDP in 2007 and minerals made up 79 percent of total export revenue with diamonds accounting for 46 percent of export revenue in 2008. The main minerals mined in Sierra Leone are diamonds, rutile, bauxite, gold, iron and limonite.
Debt bondage in India was legally abolished in 1976 but remains prevalent due to weak enforcement by the government. Bonded labour is a system in which lenders force their borrowers to repay loans through labor. Additionally, these debts often take a large amount of time to pay off and are unreasonably high, propagating a cycle of generational inequality. This is due to the typically high interest rates on the loans given out by employers. Although debt bondage is considered to be a voluntary form of labor, people are forced into this system by social situations.
Child labour in Africa is generally defined based on two factors: type of work and minimum appropriate age of the work. If a child is involved in an activity that is harmful to his/her physical and mental development, he/she is generally considered as a child labourer. That is, any work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children, and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. Appropriate minimum age for each work depends on the effects of the work on the physical health and mental development of children. ILO Convention No. 138 suggests the following minimum age for admission to employment under which, if a child works, he/she is considered as a child laborer: 18 years old for hazardous works, and 13–15 years old for light works, although 12–14 years old may be permitted for light works under strict conditions in very poor countries. Another definition proposed by ILO's Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labor (SIMPOC) defines a child as a child labourer if he/she is involved in an economic activity, and is under 12 years old and works one or more hours per week, or is 14 years old or under and works at least 14 hours per week, or is 14 years old or under and works at least one hour per week in activities that are hazardous, or is 17 or under and works in an "unconditional worst form of child labor".
Human rights in Sierra Leone are in a rather deplorable state, but have improved gradually since the end of its civil war in 2002. Among the major human-rights problems in Sierra Leone today, according to a 2011 U.S. State Department report, are "security force abuse and use of excessive force with detainees, including juveniles; harsh conditions in prisons and jails; official impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged detention, excessive bail, and insufficient legal representation; interference with freedom of speech and press; forcible dispersion of demonstrators; widespread official corruption; societal discrimination and violence against women, discrimination based on sexual orientation; female genital mutilation (FGM); child abuse; trafficking in persons, including children; and forced child labor".
The Indian Diamond Institute (IDI) is a Government of India sponsored autonomous higher school of learning in the fields of diamonds, gems and jewellery in India. The Institute is located in Surat, Gujarat, India and is 263 km away from Mumbai. Indian Diamond Institute is an Authorised Assayer of Department of Customs, Government of India.
Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. Ltd., also known as HK, is an Indian diamond conglomerate, headquartered in The Capital, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai, India. It was established in 1992 by Savji Dholakia and his three brothers. The company has manufacturing units at Surat in Gujarat and its marketing and sales office in Mumbai. HK exports polished diamonds to 79 countries. Currently, the company manufactures over 40,000 carats of diamonds every month.
Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is an organisation set up by the Government of India (GOI) with aim to promote the Indian gem and jewellery industry and its products.
Vasant Gajera, born on 25 May 1954, is an Indian businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of Laxmi Diamond Group, a diamond manufacturing and exporting company.
Kiran Gems is an Indian manufacturer of natural polished diamonds.
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