straight. so many different walks of life. son or race and oddly troy but all over come straight from the heart. of. the russia into a journey to death starts june 18th g.w. . 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 kept yet they are not run by big corporations all of the miners work

for themselves. between 10200 rupees depending on the luck a prize. i have to start a whole basketful like this one here 2 on the equivalent of one euro $0.25 apiece women work 8 hours a day under the blazing sun. can i do you good i'd rather work or live and die of starvation like. the hills or visit desert like landscape on full of the mineral mind all you have to do is bend down and pick it up in early strips unknown to most people the roma to really is used in a multitude of everyday products. in automotive paints for example. or as an insulating material for alec.

components of. mostly doubt it is used in the cosmetics industry and when crushed into a powder is found in almost every time of cosmetic. minor here michael there micah everywhere but who pays the price for our glittery cosmetics one. down in the valley children are gathering micro they are aged between 6 and 9 when. the is about that. but if. you are not getting. upload at their genitals the this.

with the. they were just at the end of the foot. of. also. to find out more about the importance of mica in the beauty industry we had to because medical trained fat and balin there are no standards for the likes of shut down do your l'oreal here the big brands don't make their own products they are outsourced mostly so we tally and manufacturers. mica is an essential ingredient in make up such as mr carro. lipstick and foundation. so what is mica me cry. everything i know my kid is

a shimmery material which puts the glue tainted powders and creams seems half what you have that effect it produces the shimmering glowing effect on the skin. it's in foundation 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 and the formulas of their product. but do they know where their role materials are sourced . that's why this yes yes yes we'd need to scrutinize the documents every time. and in principle 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. and they give every roll material has it's own documentation if this is delivered along with the order of the material for example with mica that is 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 this 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 my imported into europe comes from india. officially india and mica production comes from russia star in practice almost 90 percent of the my german mined in india is from the states of

jharkhand and bihar. mining and extraction are illegal than. 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 gun mining. however our drone footage shows a different picture. countless craters are testimony to the extent of mining in the region it is mostly local by. even in areas that are very difficult to access. some of the mica miners use dynamite to get into the mountainside. others de garmo surveys using rudimentary tools we try to establish contact with them we want to

understand how they have been mining mica 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. an eel 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. with. 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. average daily wages 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 no electricity here despite the brand new elektra city mass the families livelihood used to be farming but drought and climate change have now made most of the land barren. i am as if this is my land here all of this. can you still farm on this land and there is. there's no rain the nothing can grow it's to drive. the. extraction of mica has become an indispensable source of income for more than 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 narrow well catch our attention. and though. they are don't worry we're not police ok no problem in. africa what is your name and i run saying how do you manage to work down there. richard. 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.

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. cannon 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 euros $0.80. i've worked here for 4 months a lot of people worked 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. he is at the club 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 michael 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. by the 1st sit down and meet. anita is illiterate like most of the villagers in java and. i don't know how old my parents don't remember. anything and you tell us about your husband. michael. my husband left to work in the mines he went deep underground i must buried in a landslide. there others die with yes 3

others. since her husband died anita is the sole provider for her family every day she walks 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 with 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 end up not because there are only little stones here. it means that they know that if. it's on a. show it to me right away or i'll get cross.

this is my daily ordeal working in the heat i can deal with my children can't i won't let them starve i have to work because i don't have any land to farm. for softer 3 grueling hours anita and her children have collected enough mica to feed themselves for a day. many highly profitable businesses rely on these people slogging away. at the end of each day the vani villagers take what they've gathered to connection points where the mica is sold by weight. to put it down here small traders are at the bottom of the supply chain they supply my cancer local wholesalers. locals directors to the wholesalers who buy their goods.

there are 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. where does the mica 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. all the time i don't know. but if. the so children don't work there no. new exporter michael yourself. 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 michael produced in the region. is one of the largest corporations in europe with an annual turnover of around 15000000000 euros. the pharmaceuticals giant is also a leading producer of cosmetics and chemical products and one of the key suppliers of wrong materials to the cosmetics industry. its subsidiaries collar owner and to morrow on supply to major brands such as l'oreal chanel and grill. 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 singh include the control of relevant documentation welker's ages working hours and wages as well as compliance with environmental safety and health standards by means of restricting 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 25000 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 exporters 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. for you my calculus is valuable mica flakes are exported to europe for around 500 euros. the young entrepreneur tells us there's a good reason his mica isn't sourced from. mines that use child labor register when extraction is legal and controlled by all florida's. this is a lot of understanding that goes on. and they're looking in other sectors.

legally but there. just is a reminder around 90 percent of the indian production is not from register but from john can't and be hot. our research also finds a database recording all micah exports from the port in kolkata. we see that several containers a week go to american germany. supplied by 2 export is based in kodama ram to modi and the cheesier and calves. the host sailor in kodama whose source is mica from the legal minds himself mentioned these 2 export businesses. to export to.

know are some of the exporters. to ram to modi to yes of course and to pitch easier to cheesier yes i supply them to the responsible for the export. we manage to find the 2 suppliers 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. most natives. yes brenda it's very early but if hosing is potential buyers we try to find out more about his suppliers and clients about the nanny suspicious to be.

able. your father hears that yes we're not getting anywhere here. at random ot 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 another 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 pitchy easier for years supplying them with my car for export or that the fact they've been doing it for a long time there michael mostly goes to america in germany. and. the man is happy to explain to us how the trade with foreign buyers works do the firms have

export licenses. yes they've got an export license. they don't have any mining operations but they have tame the relevant documents but they have their goods from here it's not legal at all. you can get the necessary permits from russia start because there's mica there. exporters use licenses from there. since they're my car comes from illegal mines in jharkhand the export is have to get around the system to legalize their goods they buy the new. sorry certificates in rogers dom which they used to export the illegally mined mica to europe and. the man introduces us to his partner. thanks for the

us banks and. he informs us that businesses can obtain a document certifying they are observing the ban on child labor. so if the buyer wants him 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. 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 miner comes from it's a simple matter to obtain papers to find that it hasn't been produced by child labor this is what was so difficult to 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 and 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 shouldn't you get a certificate even when you don't fulfill the requirements yourself that's the way the world works. of course large corporations like america conduct their own inspection of the tanks mortars also have their tricks to get around this . american spector's come for example mr. b. asked me to take him to the mines for a visit. to get. mines where children work but. yes children work there too but on the day of the inspection

there was a child inside me but you know women and no children. so far they exporters ram to modi and parties haven't commented on the allegations. we confront mac with the results of our research the company refuses an interview in writing they refer to their corporate responsibility charter and explain we completely reject the use of any kind of child labor to this end 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 even. 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. it's all too hard hearted it's unbearable we need to act now you know this is why our organization was founded and why does want to eradicate child labor by 2022 funny family 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 the families would lose their only income overnight.

take the huge effort to stay there when we know all about the problem and still say . re staying that we're aware of the issue and ridge joining forces to solve it. suspected of a systemic. but the fact is mica traders and exporters of 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 bad light the creation of new jobs here by 2022 seems like pie in the sky.

what do they dream of at night. as cleaners they see the face of horror. their job censoring for the social media industry. in manila there are thousands of so-called content monitored day for day they screw up terrifying images from online platforms to the cleaners social media's shadow industry. in 15 minutes on t.w. . the global corona crisis you can find more information online savvy

w dot com and on t.w. social media channels. this is news coming to light from altering the band behind the movement thousands pay their last respects to george floor his desk police custody sparked a global fight for racial justice the calls to defund the police risk losing political support for reform also coming up as hong kong marks one year pro-democracy protests beijing's dissent activists.