weforum – On a recent trip to India, I met a 12-year-old girl, Kushboo, in the village of Bhairupura, not far from Jaipur. Bhairupura is a village of the Raigar people, a scheduled caste who traditionally work in shoe-making. There’s nothing beyond the village but forest. Few outsiders visit Bhairupura, except for the agents working for the carpet manufacturers who operate modern factories in Jaipur.

Those factories are where international buyers are brought to tour. But many of their rugs are not produced at these locations. Rather, they are being made in villages like Bhairupura, by children like Kushboo – a cheap, captive and unseen workforce.

Millions of modern-day slaves

Most of us don’t imagine that the goods we buy with the label Made in India, or any number of other countries, are tainted by child or forced labour. But the International Labour Organization estimates that 168 million child labourers and 21 million forced labourers are toiling away in the global economy. We also know that many people work in informal sectors – sub-contracted production outside of factory settings – where exploitation is commonplace. Tiếp tục đọc “There are 168 million victims of child labour – and we’re failing them” →