Working With GoodWeave To Eliminate Child Labour

Over the past 20 years, Goodweave have been working tirelessly to end child labour in the carpet industry. They take a holistic approach to their work, harnessing market forces to clean up supply chains, promote education and improve conditions for all workers. They have saved over 6,740 children from child labour and given over 25,476 a quality education. GoodWeave provide partners such as Bazaar Velvet Rugs, with the confidence that their rugs will never be made by child labour.

Throughout South Asia, nearly 300,000 children are forced to weave rugs for the highly profitable handmade rug industry. Many of them are victim to their family’s debts and are sent off to work in dreadful conditions as young as seven years old. Others were kidnapped or trafficked. These children suffer from malnutrition, impaired vision and breathing, sexual abuse and injuries from using dangerous tools.

So why have so many children found themselves in the workplace rather than at school? Few companies would actively ignore an instance of child labour in their factories- however many have such an unclear idea of their supply chain they’re unable to check every plant. This is a symptom of an increasing reliance on outsourcing, which is often in the form of cottage industry production. It is in facilities like this that 90% of the labourers Goodweave rehabilitates are found. Unfortunately, this issue is often combined with appallingly low wages and even debt bondage. Therefore, helping companies reach a stage of complete supply chain transparency is a priority for non-government organisations.

The child workforce need someone to stand up for them. In the years since 2000, the progress in reducing child labour has been impressive, with figures dropping from 245 million to 168 million. However, with a dramatic decrease of government support, particularly from the US, this progress is now at risk of slowing.

If you would like to help GoodWeave combat child labour and exploitation in general: next time you buy a handknotted or handmade rug  made in Afghanistan, India or Nepal, make sure it has a GoodWeave label.

Bazaar Velvet is a member of the GoodWeave organisation and only uses makers who are subject to their conditions and scrutiny. We believe the welfare of the community of weavers that produce our rugs must be protected. You can browse some of beautiful goodweave labeled rugs on our website, or find them in the Bazaar Velvet London rug showroom.

Hand-made rugs are gorgeous for a reason: they have been painstakingly designed and made by talented weavers. Do not allow those weavers to be mistreated and support GoodWeave.