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Lexy Lebsack investigates the dark world of child labor in the Mica mines of India. She finds out how exactly this mineral gets into cosmetics.
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00:04Makeup can be a tool for liberation and expression.
00:09It can make us feel beautiful.
00:11But one of beauty's most popular ingredients has a dark side.
00:35When children are the hidden cost in our cosmetics, who's stepping in to help them out?
00:44And who's leaving them behind?
00:55We're here in London on a press trip with Lush Cosmetics.
01:00The British company invited us here to learn about an initiative surrounding one of the most controversial ingredients going into
01:05makeup today.
01:06Mica, an unassuming mineral essential to modern life.
01:10The property of heat and electrical resistance makes this mineral invaluable.
01:16For decades, it's been used in everyday products like electronics, insulation, paint, and even toothpaste.
01:24But over the past few years, the cosmetics industry's demand for glowing, radiant shimmer has exploded.
01:32From the perfect no makeup makeup gleam to the blinding shine of a highlighter created for double taps.
01:38Mica is often the magic ingredient.
01:42But it also has an ugly side.
01:45The majority of the world's mica comes from India, where 2016 Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation revealed that it was being
01:53mined by children, and at a deadly cost.
01:57The revelation forced the beauty industry into a moral reckoning.
02:02Some companies have pledged to work with the mining communities in India to create a sustainable supply chain.
02:08It's a lofty goal, with progress that's been slow to come by.
02:13Companies like Lush, that have built a brand on ethical sourcing, have taken a different approach.
02:19Without a transparent supply chain, it decided to pull out of natural mica altogether.
02:24The glittery, shimmery effect is all the synthetic mica.
02:28It looks pretty, but I'm about to find out that it's more complicated than appearances might suggest.
02:33Much as I love sparkles, I didn't want anything put into a lush product that, you know, could have had
02:41a death attached to it.
02:43The nice thing about the synthetic mica is it has much more variety of the sparkle that you can get
02:49in the pigment.
02:50So really, there's no reason to have natural mica.
02:54It's much more complicated than that.
02:56Natural mica, it's a commodity which is in almost any product you use.
03:00You should not try to avoid mica, you should make sure that the families where you buy the mica from,
03:05as a company, get decent wages, get living wages.
03:10As corporations roll out initiatives with promises of positive change,
03:15I'm curious to know how they're actually impacting the people, and especially the children, on the ground.
03:26Globally, the mica industry is worth over half a billion dollars, and India is at its center,
03:32with the world's largest and highest quality reserves of mica.
03:36The majority of it can be found in the country's eastern states.
03:43We're leaving New Delhi, and we're about to take a sleeper train to a region called Jharkhand,
03:48which is where a lot of this mining is happening.
04:02Jharkhand is a mining state with rich reserves of coal, copper, and of course, mica.
04:11Most of the nearly 33 million residents live in rural areas where illegal and unregulated mica mines dominate the trade.
04:20It's been this way since the 1980s, when restrictive environmental laws drove the industry underground.
04:27It's been a very long journey, and we're trying to keep a low profile just because this is such a
04:32sensitive subject here.
04:33Now, many of the mines are abandoned and scavenged, while others are run by illicit operators.
04:40We're finally getting close because you can see all of the shimmer in the dirt.
04:46It's the first time I've ever seen pretty dirt.
05:01I met up with Rohit Gandhi, our local contact who secured our access to the mines.
05:07Nice to meet you.
05:07Very nice to meet you as well.
05:09We're going to keep the cars ready.
05:10Just in case any of these contractors who actually mine with these children come around, we should be ready to
05:17leave right away.
05:18Why would they be mad that we're here?
05:19They know it's illegal, right, to use children in the trade for mining.
05:23Then, obviously, they're against the law.
05:38Just a few steps off the road, I start to see them.
05:42Children.
05:44Hard at work, mining for Micah.
06:14They sift it through the river.
06:17It's all mixed with gravel, and then they'll sift it through, and they'll take the Micah out, and that they'll
06:23go and sell to somebody who will then, you know, ship it overseas.
06:36Pooja Burla is only 11 years old and has been mining Micah since she was eight.
06:42How many days are you out here per week?
06:47Every day.
06:50If you don't know, you will eat it.
07:06Do you ever get scared when you're working in the mines?
07:34Where are your parents right now?
07:40Jharkhand suffers from a classic case of the resource curse, a phenomenon where areas
07:46with abundant resources tend to be worse off for it thanks to government corruption
07:50and commercial exploitation.
07:58Despite the fact that this area is rich in mica and other minerals, Jharkhand has one
08:03of the highest poverty rates in the entire country.
08:07Many of these children, including Pooja, make less than a quarter a day, but it can mean
08:17the difference between something to eat and an empty stomach.
08:46What are the other children in the town doing?
08:57It's been estimated that up to 20,000 children are working all across the region in mines
09:03just like these.
09:07Seeing these mines and meeting these children, it's easy to understand why Lush wouldn't want
09:12anything to do with mica.
09:14This is incredibly scary and I can't even believe there's kids all the way down there.
09:19But it's also painfully clear that these children have no alternative.
09:24Can you tell me how old you were when you first started working in the mines?
09:34If you didn't have to mine, what would you be doing today?
09:42Do you have any idea where the mica goes after you mine it?
10:02We had to take off really quickly from that mine because we heard that people were coming
10:06because they knew that we were there.
10:11The mica trade here is built on a facade that its players have a stake in maintaining.
10:16Once the mica leaves the mine, it's funneled into a process that conceals the fact that
10:21children ever had anything to do with it.
10:24Traders peddle the mica to intermediaries who often sell it under the license of a legal
10:29mine from another part of the country.
10:31By the time the mica is exported, its illicit origins have been stripped away.
10:36But back in Jharkhand, it's impossible to escape the realities of the trade and the risks
10:42that go along with it.
10:44Cuts and broken bones, respiratory illnesses that can damage or even scar the lungs.
10:51And sometimes, the unthinkable.
11:03Surma Kumari and her sister Lakshmi were mining one day when the tunnel they were working
11:08in collapsed.
11:12Can you show me where you got hurt in the accident?
11:15I can show them.
11:17I can show them.
11:25They just also lie to them.
11:28Are they still there?
11:30They are calling them.
11:33They are selling their babies.
11:35They are selling them.
11:37They are selling them.
11:38I can show them.
11:40Now very often, the children are selling them in the same kind.
11:41They are selling them.
11:43And they are selling them.
12:00Do you and your family still work in the mines?
12:09The Kumari family's story is a common one.
12:13Lakshmi's death is just one of an estimated 10 to 20 deaths that occur every month.
12:19The unregulated nature of MICA opens the door to dangerous work conditions and predatory
12:25pricing.
12:26Families are trapped in a cycle of poverty.
12:30How much would the companies that are buying the MICA have to pay you to be able to send
12:35the Pooja to school?
12:42To be able to completely change your life?
12:44Yes.
12:53It really hit home.
12:58For better or worse, the choices that companies and consumers make have the power to determine
13:04people's lives.
13:07It made me look at my beauty products in a totally new light.
13:11I've pulled out some of the products that I use every single day.
13:16There's MICA in this.
13:20First ingredient.
13:24They all have MICA in them.
13:26There's MICA in all of these products.
13:28While I don't know if the MICA in these products specifically came from a mine that used child
13:34labor, there's no transparency in any of these supply chains involved in these products.
13:39These families all rely upon these mines and they've been selling MICA for a long time now.
13:47There has to be an ethical way to get MICA out of the ground.
13:50There has to be an ethical way to treat these families.
13:52And it's hard not to feel responsibility.
14:00I wanted to know where the Indian government was in all of this.
14:04It turns out, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, or NCPCR, has been
14:10aware of the issue since at least 2016 when its governing ministry lodged a complaint.
14:16When we reached out to them, they said they were conducting a survey to understand the scope
14:20of the problem and sent us to the ministry that oversees their work.
14:25There is poverty and there is less of spread of education in these interior areas.
14:31And our ministry is making all efforts to see that their child rights is protected.
14:37So we were just in Jharkhand and we saw children working in the mines that are young as five
14:43or six.
14:43But your department is the one that's surveying that.
14:46Is that enough that's being done?
14:48Actually, we are not aware of any such survey that is concurrently being done, as you say.
14:53We have been told that this committee is doing the survey and they're under your jurisdiction.
15:01How is it that…
15:02We have not authorised it.
15:03As far as this ministry goes, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, child labour
15:10is not exactly a mandate.
15:15It was alarming to realize that someone so high up at the ministry seemingly knew so little
15:21about this dire issue.
15:24While solutions may be slow to come from the top, a movement on the ground is providing
15:29some hope.
15:32A model that's been coined the child-friendly village is connecting parents to new income
15:38streams so that their children don't have to work.
15:41So many kids.
15:43It's a concept piloted by the Kailash Satyarty Children's Foundation, and it's working.
15:52More than 3,000 children have been rescued.
15:56More than 3,000 children have been withdrawn from child labour.
15:59And they have been enrolled in school.
16:03Funding comes through government services and private business support, including beauty
16:08conglomerate Estee Lauder.
16:10We thought long and hard if we wanted to stay in Indian Micah, if we wanted to move towards synthetic.
16:17And where we've ultimately landed is that it's important for us to have a stake.
16:23And having a stake means we will continue to be there until this problem comes to a resolution.
16:29And it has been incredibly important for us to always start these initiatives with the
16:34community itself.
16:38It has been a long-term process, and everybody has a role and responsibility to play in addressing
16:46this whole issue.
16:49This gathering of child-friendly villages is a showcase of what's possible when companies
16:55stay invested in the communities they work with.
17:05I feel very welcomed right now.
17:09My name is Champa Kumari.
17:10Champa.
17:12It's lovely to meet you.
17:14Champa Kumari is part of the most important and inspiring outcomes of these child-friendly
17:19villages, the child parliament.
17:29At 14 years old, she's a fierce champion of eliminating child labor.
17:37I've heard a lot about the C.M.
17:39I've seen the C.M.
17:41I've seen the C.M.
17:41At the C.M.
17:42I've spoken there, that we are not at school as a teacher.
17:45Our teacher doesn't have a few teachers.
17:46We can't study well, but we can't do the best.
17:48We are in different schools.
17:50I've seen the other schools.
17:52I've seen the other schools.
18:12What would you say to some of the companies and consumers who are buying mica that come
18:18from child labor?
18:29What do you want to accomplish next?
18:37You want to become a teacher?
18:42You're a big picture thinker.
18:44I like it.
18:46Yeah.
18:49Promising to be mica-free isn't the only or even the best answer.
18:55Mica is the lifeblood of this region, and any solution that will make a real difference
19:00must acknowledge that.
19:03It's empowering kids like Pooja and Champa that will bring change and break the cycle
19:09that keeps this region and its children chained to mica.
19:13It's very nice.
19:18It's very nice.