New report: The Dark Sites of Granite Modern slavery, child labour and unsafe work in Indian granite quarries
PRESS RELEASE
Utrecht, 23 August 2017
New report: The Dark Sites of Granite
Modern slavery, child labour and unsafe
work in Indian granite quarries
What should companies do?
New research, commissioned by the India
Committee of the Netherlands and Stop Child Labour, reveals that modern
slavery, low wages, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions are rampant in
granite quarries in South India. In some quarries, especially in waste stone
processing, child labour is found.
There is an enormous gap in working
conditions between permanent workers (mainly supervisors) and casual workers
(70% of the workforce). The first group receives safety equipment, insurance
and an employment contract, while the casual labourers doing the dangerous
manual work, lack those fundamental labour rights.
The research shows that granite sourced
from the investigated quarries is imported by 33 natural stone companies and 3
banks from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany,
Italy, Liechtenstein, Spain, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and the USA. China is also a
major importer, processor and re-exporter of Indian granite for the
international market.
Only a few companies are member of a
sustainability initiative aiming to improve working conditions in the natural
stone sector, but these initiatives still hardly tackle the deplorable working
conditions in granite quarries. The draft report was sent to all 36 companies
and banks, but only 5 reacted.
Focus on links between quarries and
importers
India is a top exporter of granite, widely
used for wall and floor tiles, tomb stones and kitchen tops in western
countries. Western governments are an important end-buyer of granite for
buildings, pavements, public squares etc. Half of the total world exports of
raw granite comes from India..
