Slender threads: Social labeling in the Indian carpet industry since the mid-1990s

Abstract

Over the past few years, when global companies have been confronted with evidence that their subcontractors are using child labor, they often turn to ‘social labeling’ and third-party certification to show consumers that their products are ‘child-labor free’.This article examines what is probably the most famous example of this kind of social labeling schemes, ‘Rugmark’, a program in India that attaches a label to handwoven carpets woven on looms which have been monitored by an independent NGO. In examining Rugmark, the article notes some of the common problems that plague voluntary self-regulatory schemes, including NGOs’ lack of resources to cover a far-flung industry; NGOs’ inability to monitor workplaces that fail to register with the scheme; and, above all, the ease with which international consumers can be misled by alternate labels.