User talk:Kasaalan/diamonds

Child labour in the diamond industry

Child labour in the diamond industry a is 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 1997, 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. It is argued economic growth in Western India in 1980s-90s was associated with an increase in the number of child workers who work at simple repetitive manual tasks that do not require long years of training or experience in low-paying hazardous works that involves drudgery and forecloses the option of school education for most of them.

There are organizations and people who try to create a public awareness about 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.

Reports
In 1997, International Labour Organization published a report titled Child Labour in the Diamond Industry. claiming that child labour is highly prevalent in the Indian diamond industry, as child labourers constitute nearly 3 percent of the total workforce and the percentage of child labourers is as high as 25 per cent in the diamond industry of Surat. ICFTU further claimed that child labour was prospering in the diamond industry in Western India, where the majority of the worlds diamonds are cut and polished while workers are often paid only a fraction of 1% of the value of the stones they cut. Pravin Nanavati, a Surat-based diamond businessman argued since high cost diamonds could easily be lost or broken while cutting or polishing, employing a child labourer would mean risking "lakhs of rupees" and “Around 8-10 years back, some western countries deliberately created the impression that child labour is prevalent in the Indian diamond industry" and called a boycott for monopolising in the sector. The South Gujarat Diamond Workers Association secretary Mohan Dhabuwala, argued 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 one per cent according to their surveys, mainly because of stern punishments and penalties for violation of child labour laws.

In 1998, Madhura Swaminathan from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research argued economic growth in Western India was associated with an increase in the number of child workers over the last 15 years and children work at simple repetitive manual tasks that do not require long years of training or experience in low-paying hazardous works that involves drudgery and forecloses the option of school education for most children.

On August 28, 2003 BBC news reported 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 7 and 16, used in hard labour work, between 08.00 AM to 18.00 PM, "like 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 affairs have registered 1,200 child miners to them out of the mines.

In 2005, an India based management consultancy firm named A. F. Ferguson & Co., commissioned a study titled Child Labour from Gem and Jewellery Industry "to spread awareness about child labor among the people connected with the industry" that is conducted at 663 manufacturing units at 21 different locations at Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, as a GJEPC initiative. The report argued that the use of child labor in India’s diamond processing industry has been reduced from .55 percent in 1998 to .31 percent in 2005 which is estimated to be less than 1 percent, "while for the synthetic stone industry it is estimated to be two-thirds less". On February 12, the study is presented in a seminar held by the Gem & Jewelry Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and the Surat Diamond Association, in Surat, India. 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 at GJEPC they "remain committed to eradicating child labor from the Indian diamond industry.” arguing "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."

On June 26, 2009, Human Rights Watch published a 62 page report titled Diamonds in the Rough, Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe, 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" 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 funneled 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 even 11 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.

Working conditions
Child Slave Labor News argued that it is reported that in the late 1980s, about 11 percent and in 1994, 16 percent of the workforce was underage in diamond industry. "Currently there are over 171 million children that work in hazardous work sites such as factories and mines."

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. In addition to those diseases, child laborers 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 their workplace or a small hovel instead 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.

Child workers 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. 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 has the result of totally shutting down all government services. And countries like Sierra Leone, which depends on diamonds for much of its economic activity, not only faces disruption in production (which reduces the supply), but a thriving black market in conflict diamonds, which drives down the price for what diamonds are produced.

Forceful relocation of indigenous people by DeBeers
When the mines are located on the land indigenous people including children, they had to be moved to a different area in order to construct a mine to collect gems. 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 in order to explore diamond resources. The Bushmen have been facing threats from government policies since at least 1980, when the diamond resources were discovered. 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. 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 in order 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. 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.

Cultural Depictions
On July 4, 2005 American rap Kanye West, released a song titled Diamonds from Sierra Leone as the lead single of his second studio album, Late Registration, containing a repeated sample of the theme song for the 1971 James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever as performed by Shirley Bassey. 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...". The music video was directed by Hype Williams and shot entirely in black-and-white in Prague, illustrating features 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 jewelry.

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.