The Carpet Industry in Mirzapur-Bhadohi Belt
The problem of Child Labour in Mirzapur

At the time of the Mughal king Akbar, carpet weaving began in the Jaunpur and Allahabad districts of Uttar Pradesh. During the course of time, the weavers migrated to Mirzapur. Manufacture of carpets first began in the village called Ghosia and then spread to the adjacent village of Madho Singh, which is also in Mirzapur. These places are well known, even today, for their carpets.

Today, the Mirzapur-Bhadohi belt has a pure cottage based export oriented carpet industry. There are four major types of handmade items; Durries, Cotton Carpets, Woollen Carpets and Silk Carpets. The district contributes about 80 percent of the Indian carpet market, of which one-fourth is exported.

Owing to several reasons like non-availability of opportunity for education, poverty etc. child labour is very common in this area. Essentially children from poor families are bonded against an advance paid to their parents or are otherwise engaged in the looms under subhuman condition. It is estimated that most of the child workers are engaged in the weaving process of carpet industry in Mirzapur, which is carried out in households, scattered over remote villages and the urban suburbs of Mirzapur district.

According to the 1981 census, the population in the age group of 0-14 years was about 43 percent of the total population of which 17 percent of the population below 14 years was working. With the total population of children at 8,69,034 and an estimated 1,36,432 working children and further assuming 60,000 working children in the carpet industry, it has a share of 44 percent of the working children in the district.