Challenging Child Labor: Transnational Activism and India's Carpet Industry

Abstract

Transnational movements have become an important component of an emerging and relatively recently theorized transnational civil society in the field of international relations. Nongovernmental organizations, social movements, and social activists concerned with the global issues of poverty, environment, and human rights have created an intellectual and political global space outside the national territorial space to give voice to their concerns on issues of transnational importance. This article examines transnational human rights movement around the issue of child labor in the carpet industry in India. Although the intersection of child labor with the carpet trade from India was utilized effectively by Indian and German activists to bring about changes in child labor use, the more foundational impact has been the creation of Rugmark, a label that certifies child-labor-free carpets and provides services for the rehabilitation and education of children involved in the carpet industry.