it would give them i have serious problems on a personal level and i was unable to live there but you're going to. want to know their story info migrants to verify to get reliable information for margaret's. we are in jharkhand northern india it's one of the poorest regions in the country deep within these rocky crevices around 20 men and women are foraging through the rubble looking for the shimmering mineral mica there are thousands of mines like this in john can't yet they are not run by big corporations all of the miners work for themselves. between 10200 rupees depending on the love it

dries. i have to sell a whole basketful like this one here too on the equivalent of one euro $0.25 means women work 8 hours a day of the blazing sun what else can i do. i'd rather work in the life and die of starvation right now. the hills of this desert like landscape are full of the mineral mind. you have to do is bend down and pick it up in early strips unknown to most people the roman terry lane is used in a multitude of everyday products. in automotive paints for example. or as an insulating material for electronic components. mostly though it is used in the cosmetics industry. crushed into a powder my current. found in almost every time of cosmetic. mind here michael

ware. everywhere but who pays the price for our glittery cosmetics. one. down in the valley children are gathering my car why are aged between 6 and 9 when. it's. at road at. the of the south of the. up but it is. also clear from the. upload of their genitals the if. they were of the. they were just like them in that i'm the 1st cause.

of someone. else also. to find out more about the importance of my career in the beauty industry we had to because medical trained fat and brown and there are no standards for the likes of chanel do your l'oreal here the big brands don't make their own products they are outsourced to italia manufacturers. minor is an essential ingredient in make up such as must garra. lipstick and foundation. so what is mica make i am i my kit is a shimmery material which puts the glitter into powder isn't cream it's. half what it. i just checked it produces the shimmering glowing effect on the skin.

it's an asian in lipstick my cousin everything. it's a cane gradient yes and cosmetics especially in the decorative department i'd say it's one of the most important. manufacturers now planty about the formulas of their product. but do they know where their role materials are sauced. that's why this yes has lead me to scrutinize the documents every time. intrinsically we'd have to ask our suppliers how. the industry is aware of the issue of child labor and is trying to tackle it. many firms rely on the information given by suppliers. it is.

and they give you every role material has its own documentation if this is delivered along with the order of the material for example with mica. it's documented in the computer so we know exactly which product has been manufactured from which batch of raw material. you can trace it back to the mine right exactly but does that it's really work. micah can be found all over the world. the u.s. brazil canada and south korea are among the largest countries to extract it. however china and india are way ahead 30 percent of all might are imported into europe comes from india. officially india and mica production comes from russia starting in practice almost 90 percent of the my term mined in india is from the stakes of jharkhand and be hard mica mining and extraction are illegal that.

in the ninety's the state declared these miles of wild fowl is a nature reserve in order to protect them the old guard is back and all my to mining. however are drone footage shows a different picture. countless craters are testimony to the extent of mining in the region it is mostly local villagers who work here even in areas that are very difficult to access. some of the micro miners use dynamite to get into the mountainside. others dig almost surface using rudimentary tools we try to establish contact with them we want to understand how they have been mining miner illegally for over 40 years and in spite of the band. it was not easy to spot them in this rough terrain.

after searching for several days we finally came across a family. meal is 25 years old he comes with his wife and children to collect micah every day. and micah is our only option we all come here to work so we can make about 302400 rupees so we can buy rice and feed ourselves. so. what do you want for your children. i want them to be able to study to do something with their lives i want them to have a good job. life. average daily wage is between 3 euros 80 and 5 euros he hasn't always been a micro gatherer just 2 years ago he was working as a farmer he lives in this village of 60 inhabitants at the foot of the mines there

is no running water or electricity here despite the brand new elektra city masts the family's livelihood used to be farming but drought and climate change have now made most of the land barren. i ate a steak. this is my land here all of this. can you still farm on this land. if there's no rain the nothing can grow it's too dry. the. extraction of mica has become an indispensable source of income from all the 90 percent of john cans population. the miners are willing to take huge risks to get hold of the mineral they have to dig deeper and deeper into the mountain to find it. the sounds coming from a mind near a well catch our attention.

they have don't worry we're not police ok no problem here. what is your name and i run saying how do you manage to work down there. written. when you're hungry you aren't afraid to go down it's true that it's dangerous work but what else can you do we have to eat i don't have much choice i don't have much education and i don't get any state support. can and is that a 5 years old and has 2 children. he agrees to let us follow him into the tunnel he has built every month around a dozen miners from the region die in these dangerous underground quarries. almost

15 meters underground the air is very stuffy it's around $45.00 degrees and there is nothing shoring up the tunnels which could collapse at any minute. canon and his friend ravi spend around 8 hours a day here in the darkness an ordeal that earns them around $300.00 rupees a day the equivalent of 3 year as a $0.02. i've worked here for 4 months a lot of people work here in the past even our grandfathers were digging here 40 or 50 years ago are you aware that people die due to these mines collapsing. i'm scared for my life like anyone would be but what else can i do there aren't too

many accidents here if god so chooses it will happen but for now they haven't been any disasters here. they were in yes at the we knew my. doesn't it worry you that what you're doing is illegal. the police came around 4 or 5 months ago they told us that it's illegal and that we should stop they even tried to scare us a few times but how are we going to feed ourselves if we don't come here. the 2 miners live in 23 a town with a population of around 4000 people surrounded by michael reserves mica mining is the main source of income here 3 years ago the town was struck by

a mining disaster. i needed a v lost her husband in the accident she has 4 children. left sit down and meet. the neater is a literate like most of the villagers in java. i don't know how old my parents don't remember. nor can you tell us about your husband. michael. my husband left to work in the mines he went deep underground and was buried in a landslide. did others die over the years yes 3 others. since her husband died anita is the sole provider for

her family every day she walked 2 kilometers along a stony path under the hot sun to the summit of this mountain when her children don't have to go to school they go without the youngest is just 4 years old. the children help me by gathering the rocks. we break them up and then collect all the little stones. i don't know and that not because there are only little stones here. it was the battle that if. it's on the. show it to me right away or cross. this is my daily ordeal working in the heat i can deal with my children. i won't let them starve i have to work because i don't have any land to farm. after 3

grueling hours anita and her children have collected enough mica to feed themselves for a day. many highly profitable businesses rely on these poor people slogging away. at the end of each day the valley villagers take what they've gathered to connection points where the mica is sold by weight. put it down here small traders are at the bottom of the supply chain they supply my cats are local wholesalers. the locals directors to the wholesalers who buy their goods.

there on several dozen collection points in the town center. is the only game in town. but france the wholesalers refuse to talk to us but eventually one of them agrees to questions. does the micro come from. it comes from the mines. to the small traders bring it to you. yes. the wholesaler openly admits that the mica is sourced from illegal mines but as soon as we start to talk about child labor he starts to hedge . would like to ask you about children working in the mines. there aren't any children working in the mines. that's false information.

that the children bring food to their parents when they're working in the media take photos of it. a lot i don't know. yet but it. is so children don't work there no. new exporter michael yourself. you know we sell it to the exporters then it goes to mumbai china germany and so on. who buys it in germany. so he says the german corporate group america is one of the main buyers of the micro protest in the region.

is one of the largest corporations in europe with an annual turnover of around 15000000000 euros. pharmaceuticals giant is also a leading producer of cosmetics and chemical products and one of the key suppliers of raw materials to the cosmetics industry. and to supplying to major brands such as l'oreal chanel and. we are committed to labor standards human rights environmental protection and are opposed to every type of corruption. max code of conduct contains a commitment to 0 tolerance of child labor it sounds comprehensive annual or did sing clude the control of relevant documentation workers ages working hours and

wages as well as compliance with environmental safety and health standards by means a board it's strictly monitor the compliant behavior of our partners but does it really work we head for kodama in the north of jharkhand this town with a population of 24000 is the heart of the mica industry this is where most of the export business is and processing plants are based. on 25 years old is one of the towns export is when we introduce ourselves as journalists he agrees to show us his warehouses and to talk about child labor. going for some material the material should always be ready here next to the machine. around 50 people work in the company after the crystals are sorted ground down and filtered they are

cleaned one last time. in and you can't just let him do for you michael flick these valuable michael flakes are exported to europe for around 500 euros the top. the young entrepreneur tells us there's a good reason his mica isn't sourced from mines that use child labor but from register their extraction is legal and controlled by both oranges. this is a lot of understanding that. my job and their lives in other sectors. legally buy their own. just as

a reminder around 90 percent of the indian production is not from rochester but from john can't and bihar. our research also finds a database recording all mica exports from the court in kolkata. we see that several containers a week go to machen germany. supplied by 2 export is based in kodama ram to modi and the cheesier and calves. the wholesale in kodama whose source is mica from illegal mines himself mentioned these 2 export businesses. to export to. know are some bikers of the exporters. to ram to modi to us of course and to put cheesy

as a cheesy yes i supply them to the responsible for the export. we managed to find there to supply. is on the outskirts of the town they are located next to one another. as soon as we arrive at the cheesier the workers in need to fleece carry off only one man who seems to be in charge greets us. the. most a new friend of yours. tell you but it hosing as potential buyers we try to find out more about his suppliers and clients about the nanny suspicious fyi. i am not able. any business will be here. but. your father hears us we're not getting anywhere here.

thanks modi we're greeted by a foreman on the other end of the telephone his boss tells us that he won't meters . as we're leaving the premises we spot a number factory building a few meters away this time the boss is there and welcomes us with open arms we are still posing as potential buyers he says he has been working with ram to modi and pitch easier for years supplying them with my car for export or that's the fact they've been doing that for a long time they're mica mostly goes to american germany. but. the man is happy to explain to us how the trade with foreign buyers works the firms have export licenses. yes they've got an export license. they don't have any mining operations but they have taken

the relevant documents but they have their goods from here it's not legal at all. you can get the necessary permits from russia. because there's mica there. exporters use licenses from there. since them my card comes from illegal mines in jharkhand the exports have to get around the system to legalize their goods they buy the necessary certificates in rogers dom which they used to export illegally mind miter to europe. the man introduces us to his partner. thank the west bank and. he informs us that businesses can obtain a document certifying they are observing the ban on child labor.

so if the buyer wants them certificate how do you do it. we can get one without business name for us it's no problem at all to get the papers. thank you. that's possible. yes we take care of everything but if you want one of these papers it will cost you a lot the administrative process is expensive. how much does it cost. between $2.02 rupees per kilo. so no matter where the micro comes from it's a simple matter to obtain papers to find that it hasn't been produced by child labor this is what the certificates look like this copy comes from the indian office of an international certification company it certifies that the micro was produced in compliance with laws to prevent child labor according to this indian export are such certificates are absolutely mandatory for international groups.

we have a saying here to people who don't own cals automatically get no milk in the same way you can ask why should. you get a certificate even when you don't fulfill the requirements yourself that's the way the world works. of course large corporations micmac conduct their own inspections while tanks mortars also have their tricks to get around this . take it to the american specters come for example mr. you'll be asked me to take him to the mines for a visit my kid got up it's one thing to get that. mine's where children work but the fun of it got that way with us children work there too but on the day of the inspection there wasn't a child unsightly but no women and no children but. so far the export is rum to modi and pitch easier haven't commented on the allegations. we confront

mack with the results of our research the company refuses an interview in writing they refer us to bear responsibility charter and explain we completely reject the use of any kind of child labor to this and we have introduced control mechanisms along the entire supply chain which we are continuously developing. should any concrete indication of irregularities arise we will of course investigate them and take appropriate measures. of a global organization responsible miter initiative is an n.g.o.s that campaigns against child labor in my car mines. they have around 50 sponsors including mac l'oreal chanel and eva share.

the french representative of the ngo agrees to meet us in her paris office. we show her the footage we filmed in the mines in india. something out of it it's unbearable we need to act now this is why our organization was founded and why we want to eradicate child labor by 2022 funny for imo is aware that child labor still exists but doesn't want international companies to pull out of the region. if these companies decided to stop buying mica from india their families would lose their only income overnight. it takes a huge effort to stay there when we know all about the problem and still say.

risto there where where of the issue andrea joining forces to solve. this is have to live down the systemic and. the fact is micah traders and export years are the biggest beneficiaries of illegal mining and it's hardly in their interests to change anything importers and producers rely on spot checks and indian certificates but jock hands people are the ones who suffer because they depend on the income from illegal mining. seen in that light the creation of new jobs here by 2022 seems like pie in the sky.

africa. measure 'd during the corona crisis 'd in rwanda is expensive 'd and disinfectants are virtually unattainable 'd. but a young business woman has decided to improvise. in her distillery she produces disinfected. go to africa. in 30 minutes on d w like. a mug or just some of our. food for the russian soul. it runs to. so many different parts of life. some are. coming straight from the heart. the russian and turning from birth to death starts june 18th all again. w.

. this is d. delphine is live from berlin in the u.s. the last chance for the public to bid farewell to george floyd throngs of people off filing by the casket of the african american whose death while in police custody sparked protests around the world we'll get the latest from houston also coming up a tricky job begins in paris removing damaged scaffolding from.