organization spotlight
Nearly 300,000 children, some as young as 4 years old, are used in India, Nepal, and Pakistan to weave handmade carpets for the U.S. and European markets. The children are often beaten and forced to work long hours with scant food-and girls are routinely recruited into the trade only to be sold into the sex industry a few years later. The nonprofit group RugMark has already rescued more than 3,000 young laborers and is trying to do away with the worldwide market for rugs woven by children by inspecting factories and affixing special labels to rugs made without child labor.
Although RugMark rugs are available from more than 1,000 retailers, many of this countrys largest home furnishings stores still have not joined the campaign. But right now, consumers and retailers have a chance to permanently alter the economics of child labor. RugMark-certified rugs currently account for just 2 percent of those sold in the U.S.; when that number hits 15 percent, RugMark predicts the market will reach a tipping point and rug producers will find that exploiting children doesnt pay.
Check their website out : RugMark