Kuppam - India - 2007
Subject: Archean Granites - one of the biggest granite exporters in India !
Accusation: Using child labor, underpaying employers, supplying workers with no safety equipment !
The case: Showing on a documentary tonight on Norwegian television a "60 minutes like" Norwegian journalist and investigator Erling Borgen have uncovered despicable conditions for stone workers in India, especially in Kuppam India, world famous for it`s high quality granite !
The workers get paid about $2 for 10 hours hard labour and work 5 days pr week, they have no rights what so ever, no work no pay, no health insurance, no work contract, no safety equipment available and works in an average temperature of 43 degrees Celsius.
Average life expectancy for a stone worker under these condition are 40 years, the average in India is about 60 years.
Archean Granites buys stone from about 40 such quarries and then uses child labour amongst their work force with the same treatment as mentioned above, the dust from the carving and chipping on the stone alone is enough to cause severe health problems in addition to the lack of proper goggles to protect themselves against splinters.
When one of the bigger factories where visited by Erling Borgen and his camera-team none of the workers where present supposedly because of a transport strike (check your sources Archean - this is the most common excuse used by other exploiters of child labour around the world), meanwhile a member of the camera-team asked a group of people outside the the fence of the factory if they worked there and got a positive answer !
This company alone delivers 240.000 meters of granite in various shapes and sizes and 12.000 tons of road-stone (spell-check for correct term in English) and that`s only what they deliver to Norway !
What baffles me is that the cost-reduction for buying the granite from India was only 30% instead of using a Norwegian supplier witch means someone on the way from the worker in the quarry and the guy that cuts the stone and before it reaches Norway is making a shitload of money !
Some might then reflect a little and say: If they didn`t work there what would they do then, it sure is better making some money than none at all !
Well, i don`t agree for the simple fact that it can`t possibly cost that much to provide some safety for their workers, goggles and a dust-mask would dramatically alter the health of the workers - pay them a couple of dollars xtra so they actually can provide for their family and don`t have to send their children off to work but too school to get an education !
So my moral dilemma is: If we didn`t buy the products of such companies or put pressure on them to tidy up the conditions would that change anything ?
And this is only one company dealing in only one profession !
Subject: Archean Granites - one of the biggest granite exporters in India !
Accusation: Using child labor, underpaying employers, supplying workers with no safety equipment !
The case: Showing on a documentary tonight on Norwegian television a "60 minutes like" Norwegian journalist and investigator Erling Borgen have uncovered despicable conditions for stone workers in India, especially in Kuppam India, world famous for it`s high quality granite !
The workers get paid about $2 for 10 hours hard labour and work 5 days pr week, they have no rights what so ever, no work no pay, no health insurance, no work contract, no safety equipment available and works in an average temperature of 43 degrees Celsius.
Average life expectancy for a stone worker under these condition are 40 years, the average in India is about 60 years.
Archean Granites buys stone from about 40 such quarries and then uses child labour amongst their work force with the same treatment as mentioned above, the dust from the carving and chipping on the stone alone is enough to cause severe health problems in addition to the lack of proper goggles to protect themselves against splinters.
When one of the bigger factories where visited by Erling Borgen and his camera-team none of the workers where present supposedly because of a transport strike (check your sources Archean - this is the most common excuse used by other exploiters of child labour around the world), meanwhile a member of the camera-team asked a group of people outside the the fence of the factory if they worked there and got a positive answer !
This company alone delivers 240.000 meters of granite in various shapes and sizes and 12.000 tons of road-stone (spell-check for correct term in English) and that`s only what they deliver to Norway !
What baffles me is that the cost-reduction for buying the granite from India was only 30% instead of using a Norwegian supplier witch means someone on the way from the worker in the quarry and the guy that cuts the stone and before it reaches Norway is making a shitload of money !
Some might then reflect a little and say: If they didn`t work there what would they do then, it sure is better making some money than none at all !
Well, i don`t agree for the simple fact that it can`t possibly cost that much to provide some safety for their workers, goggles and a dust-mask would dramatically alter the health of the workers - pay them a couple of dollars xtra so they actually can provide for their family and don`t have to send their children off to work but too school to get an education !
So my moral dilemma is: If we didn`t buy the products of such companies or put pressure on them to tidy up the conditions would that change anything ?
And this is only one company dealing in only one profession !
Wait behind the line ..............................................................