The Cost of Beauty: Child Labor in Mica Mining
What is in your cosmetics bag? If you use makeup that shimmers and shines, there is a strong chance those products contain mica, a group of silicate minerals that can be ground into a sparkling powder. The Jharkhand state in eastern India, which is home to one of the largest deposits of mica in the world, and southern Madagascar have been identified as places with widespread child labor in dangerous mica mines. How can we advocate for those children and make certain the beauty industry only uses ethically-sourced mica?
This crisis started with colonization.
Refinery 29's exposé on child labor in mica mines in India revealed that Indians had sustainably mined mica for generations, but in the 19th century British colonists turned eastern India into "the mica belt" by opening hundreds of mines. When India won independence in 1947, they were left with nearly 700 mica mines and around 20,000 miners. Until the fall of the Soviet Union, India had a reliable mica buyer. With their collapse, India entered a mica recession and the government stopped monitoring mica mines despite making mining illegal.
Buyers prey on children in extreme poverty.
In 2019, NBC reported on thousands of children working in Madagascar's mica mines. Manjoraza is from a family cycling through bouts of extreme poverty and generations of child labor and exploitation. He works in unsafe conditions, crawling through dark tunnels to find mica. Refinery 29 found that the dust in mica mines can cause serious infections and when mica mines crumble they can trap and kill child laborers. In 2016, Thomson Reuters Foundation revealed that children who die in India's illegal mines do not receive any semblance of justice. Their families are given “blood money” to remain silent.
A suspicious mica supply chain.
After the mica is mined in places like India and Madagascar, it will quickly make its way through a muddy supply chain to China, where it will become component parts for electronics, like hair dryers, and shimmery cosmetic pigments. For the beauty industry, the mica is ground into fine powders and sold to companies around the world. By obscuring the origins of mica, and concealing child laborers, every part of the supply chain benefits financially. NBC found that the vast majority of mica mined in Madagascar lands in American products.
Always check the labels. EWG provides information about common ingredients in skincare and makeup and they track products that contain mica. Don't see your favorite products listed? Check brands' websites for their complete list of ingredients (look for mica, muscovite, potassium aluminum silicate, and CI 77019) and see if your favorite brands are part of the Responsible Mica Initiative.
Ask companies about the source of their mica. As a fan of the clean-beauty brand Westman Atelier, Girl Friday contacted their team via Instagram to learn more about the source of their mica and they responded immediately, confirming they only use ethically-sourced mica with third party verification. Even if your favorite brands are part of the Responsible Mica Initiative, tell them why this matters. Much like the chocolate industry, the beauty industry will not meet the next deadline, 2022, to end child labor in their supply chain without consumers constantly demanding change.
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