Mirzapur's carpet weavers

Many of the famed carpet weavers from Mirzapur are today found on the sidewalk selling potatoes and onions, or pulling rickshaws. Things are not going at all well with the carpet industry. The international market is flooded by cheap Chinese and Iranian products which receive tremendous government support, but the Indian government has not been so helpful. Furthermore, petty strifes between administrative officals over warehouse availability for storing the carpets, has left the carpet manufacturers with inadequate infrastructure to stock up and market their goods because carpets are a bulky item requiring much more groundlevel support than other arts and crafts products.

And whatever happened to the whole notion of fair trade out here? Unfortunately, the manufacturers themselves resort to anti-fair-trade practices by using child labour, or underpaid workers from the neighboring countries of Nepal and Bangladesh. Really, the government should notice their plight and help NGOs in the surrounding areas supporting rural and traditional handicrafts to take the unemployed carpet weavers under their clout. Otherwise, this will not only spell doom for these artisans, but also spell the death of the local carpet industry.

A follow-up article was published on the large scale use of child-labour in these parts. It does not make a pleasing read at all. Children hardly 13 years of age are sold by their poor parents, and made to work in inhuman conditions to manufacture these carpets. Raids have been made in the past, and the children have been returned to their homes. However, as it turns out, the children are resold to dalaals who send them elsewhere for other kinds of work. An integrated approach is needed, where not just raids are conducted, but educational programs are put in place for the children, and incentive structures are established to encourage the parents to send their kids to school.