Since I’m a bleeding heart, listening to my friends complain about how much last night cost them made me think about the costs that are born by smaller folk than me. In response to my post about how India has become a major flower exporter and how an Indian multinational is poised to become the largest rose exporter in the world, Anantha pointed out the dark side of this business, namely accusations of the use of child labour:

Malur, the little-known rose capital on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, which caters to a large domestic and export market, engages more than 1,000 female children in this chain of rose production, right from rose plucking to packaging, according to John Devaraj, a film maker and a child rights activist… [Link]

While I question some of the claims made (“These girls are swift in their work and can pluck upto even 10,000 roses per day…” [Link]), the accusation is quite plausible on its face.

If present, the use of child labor is even more troubling when you consider the fact that flower growing involves large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides, thus exposing children to noxious chemicals. Even without that, though, roses have thorns, something that’s easy to forget when you only have to deal with the cellophane wrapped versions, so this is hardly light labor.

Horticulture, however, comes out smelling like roses in comparison to the high end of the romance market, namely diamonds. As you all know, India is a dominant force in the bulk diamond market:

India’s diamond industry is the fastest growing in the world, employing more than a million people and turning over some $8bn a year. [Link]

It’s not surprising that some diamond merchants are willing to cut corners when it comes to the source of the gems:

‘These stones are from Africa,’ he said, holding up two knuckle-sized murky brown diamonds. ‘We can’t always tell where they are from, but they aren’t legitimate. But here business is done with cash and no questions.’…

‘Look at this diamond,’ Shah said. ‘It’s not small, but is easy to smuggle. What can be done to stop that being smuggled to India? I will get a buyer, an agent for a polisher, who will give me a good price, and then sell it out of a reputable firm for export. There is no way it can ever be traced…’

The stones brought in by dhows and fishing boats through the shallow waters of Gujarat’s ungovernable west coast make a laughing stock of attempts to stem the global flow of blood diamonds. [Link]

And even if the use of child labor in the Indian diamond industry has declined, it’s still a significant problem:

The ILO report claims that child labour is highly prevalent in the Indian diamond industry, as child labourers constitute nearly three per cent of the total workforce. It also states that the percentage of child labourers is as high as 25 per cent in the diamond industry of Surat. [Link]

… India’s Save the Childhood Foundation estimates that diamond workshops employ up to 30,000 children. [Link]

Maybe I’m unromantic, but I don’t like to express my affection using diamonds or roses. Anyway, given the weather these days, wouldn’t a nice pair of boots be a more touching gesture? [I guess there’s a reason why I’m single ]