Dear Mr Kebschull,

We are writing in response to an article which appeared on the website Vanbam.com on 12 January 2010. HAQ: Centre for Child Rights and Samata welcome efforts by the German government to ensure products made by child labour are not entering the country. However, we feel deeply concerned by statements that you have made regarding the presence of child labour in the stone industry in India, which we feel are highly inaccurate and misleading.

Our organisations, with the support of Terre Des Hommes-Germany, are in the process of finalising a 12-month study on the impacts of mining on children across India. During the course of our field research, we have visited mine sites and mining communities in nine states of India, covering a total of 14 districts across the country. In the vast majority of these districts, we have seen large numbers of children working in the mines and quarries, carrying out a variety of hazardous tasks.

In July and September 2009, we carried out research in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, where children were found to be working in every single one of the stone quarries visited. Therefore we feel seriously concerned by your statement that ‘We can feel reassured that no case of child labour was found, especially in the large stones (business) that are exported to Germany’ and the fact that you have reassured the Minister for Labour that ‘reports of child labour in India, especially in the marbles and stone industry, were exaggerated’. Inaccurate statements such as these serve to undermine both efforts to tackle child labour in the mining sector in India and the good intentions of the German government in preventing the import of products made by child labour.

The full findings of our study will be published in March 2010, and will be launched at a national consultation in New Delhi on 22nd March. We hope that you will read the study and would like to invite you or your Delhi-based colleagues to attend the report launch in order to strengthen your understanding of this important issue.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours Faithfully.

Enakshi Ganguly Thukral Bhanumathi Kalluri