Beauty’s ugly side I: 140 million children face child labor-risk in 2025

02 Aug 2023 --- There is a dark reality behind the cosmetic industry’s colorful products, according to a report by World Vision, a relief, development and advocacy provider. Titled “The high price of beauty: Child labor in global cosmetics,” the non-governmental organization highlights a discrepancy between the outcry against animal-tested cosmetics, the need for environmentally sustainable products and a lack of attention on child labor in supply chains.

In part one of this series, Personal Care Insights shares how children from low-income countries are involved in unsafe mines and farms for palm oil, cocoa, vanilla, shea, mica and copper, used in cosmetics.

“With only two years to go until leaders’ global pledge to end child labor by 2025, the world is rapidly drifting in the wrong direction,” warn the authors.

Cruelty-free personal care products – not tested on animals – more than doubled from 2017 to 2021, with Europe leading at 44% and Middle East/Africa lagging at 2%. However, this does not mean that the rest of the supply chains are free from human rights abuses like child labor.

The shift toward natural ingredients presents an opportunity for more sustainable farming and mining families worldwide, suggest the authors. But this may backfire on child laborers if companies do not improve their supply chain practices.

“Child labor should have no place in our beauty cases”
The authors flag that child laborers are often trafficked, forced or coerced to work. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has likely increased child workers due to reduced access to education.

The report dives into shea, palm, vanilla and cocoa farming, alongside mica and copper mining.“At the current rate, 140 million children will still be in child labor in 2025, almost 20 million more than were predicted in 2016,” notify the authors. These children, aged five to 17, risk losing a “safe and healthy childhood” by working in “dangerous or exploitative conditions.” 

The authors share that smallholder farmers, plantation workers and miners work in rural areas that lack proper infrastructure and opportunities. Parent workers are “at the mercy of brokers, processors and manufacturers.” When they cannot provide for their children, they jeopardize their future, health and safety.

Heat exhaustion on palm fields
Palm oil derivatives are used in cosmetics such as liquid eyeliners, cream foundations, shampoo and lip products. “There are at least 200 names of ingredients derived from palm oil,” the report highlights.

Children as young as five work on palm plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Ecuador, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, and Colombia, share the authors.

Most children do not have protective gear and must carry and push sacks weighing 10 kg on average. The report underscores 68% of palm oil child workers described experiencing heat exhaustion. These children can also be exposed to the highly toxic and banned herbicide paraquat – since bans are not always respected in rural areas.

“One and a half million children in Indonesia work in the agricultural sector, including on palm oil plantations. Because workers on the plantations are often given quotas or paid by weight, workers enlist the help of their spouse or children to meet targets, get bonuses, or avoid penalties,” share the authors.

Unsafe cocoa farming process
Cocoa is used in creams, soaps, scrubs, face masks, blush and bronzer, according to the authors, and is majorly produced in Côte D’Ivoire and Ghana, Africa. Approximately 16,000 children are forced to work in cocoa farms in Benin, Cameroon and Togo in extreme heat.

“I would plead with the cocoa buyers to buy the cocoa at a fair price so that our fathers can get enough money to support us,” says Mabel, a former cocoa farmer worker who was a school dropout.

Families involve their children in transporting cocoa bean sacks to and from trucks owing to low pay and high-labor requirements, forcing some to drop out of school. 

Describing their plight, the authors state: “They help with spraying pesticides (with the risk of inhaling toxic chemicals) and work with sharp machetes to clear the land. They work long hours, sometimes continuing after dark.”

“Many European companies are importers and re-exporters of cocoa beans and their derivatives, highlighting their responsibility to ensure their supply chains are free of child labor.”World Vision’s global campaign aims to end violence against children in over 76 countries.

Poverty cycles in vanilla farming
Vanilla is used in lotions, lip products, body butter, foundations and creams, suggests the report, and is mainly grown in Madagascar, along with Uganda, Indonesia, Mauritius and Papua New Guinea.

“Many vanilla farmers are trapped in poverty due to an endless cycle of debt to vanilla middlemen, who

pay farmers low rates for vanilla that will be sold for high prices on the global market,” write the authors.

This cycle of poverty has resulted in “pervasive” child labor in vanilla fields. Like other agriculture, children are pushed to drop out of school to pollinate orchids by hand and participate in the drying process of the pod.

In small rural areas in Madagascar, daughters of poor farmers who cannot pay back debts are sexually exploited by debtors, shares the report. These farmers have to borrow money from vanilla middlemen and wealthier neighbors, trapping them in debt.

In addition, theft risk causes farmers to protect the harvest using their children instead of outside help.

No protection in shea agriculture
Shea butter is used across various cosmetics, such as eye makeup, lotions, creams, suntan, lipsticks and hair care, note the authors. Most shea comes from West Africa, and 16 million women work to collect and process the nuts, earning less than US$1.25 per day. 

Children and their mothers  risk injury from snakes, scorpions and bees while collecting seeds without protective gear. They also report experiencing back and neck pain due to carrying heavy loads and the “intense physical” labor required.

The authors flag a lack of research on children’s involvement in collecting and processing shea.

Deadly risks for mica mining
Mica adds a shimmer to cosmetics found in blush, eye shadows, bronzers, foundations, lipstick and mascara. It is sourced from Brazil, Canada, China, Madagascar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the US, but 25% of global mica comes from Jharkhand and Bihar, India.

“In these two states, more than 22,000 children, some as young as five years old, work in small mines with their family members, who often have no other source of income,” flags the report. Many children work in mine shafts up to “300 meters” deep that are known to collapse. Child laborers in agriculture experience body aches and heat exhaustion.

Mica mining is dangerous for children as they risk breaking bones, severe injuries, death from exhaustion, heatstroke and silicosis – a lung disease caused by inhaling quartz or silica dust. 

According to the report, “Only 10% of Indian mica mines are legal after a mass shutdown in 1980 due to anti-deforestation laws.”

However, the increasing demand for high-quality mica has led to developing a vast black market for mica from the remaining 90% of mines,” underscore the authors.

“Given their illegal nature, they are not regulated, and working conditions are dangerous, often without any safety measures.”

Mica mined by villagers and children is sold for ₹10 (about US$0.15) per kg. However, none knew how much mica was eventually sold when World Vision spoke to communities. “In 2018, the US price for one metric tonne of dry ground mica was US$330, the equivalent of US$0.33 per kg, or more than double what the families receive,” reveals the report.

Collapsing copper mines
The use of copper in cosmetics includes serums and other recent skin care innovations, amounting to a small percent of copper use worldwide. Chile leads in copper production followed by Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“Copper mines in DRC are concentrated in Haut Katanga and Lualaba provinces, where there has been increasing activity by armed groups in recent years, and where 72% of the population lives below the poverty line,” shares the report.

“Tunnels are often hand dug, poorly supported and badly ventilated – deaths due to mine collapses, and ‘hard metal lung disease’ are well documented.”

Like other child workers, COVID-19 caused more children to drop out of school. They are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by armed guards and mine owners, warns the report.

By Venya Patel