Mica Exploitation and Child Labour

Makeup can be a tool for self-expression, it makes us feel beautiful, however, one of the most popular beauty ingredients has a dark side. Let’s learn about the most controversial issue in the cosmetics industry - mica exploitation, where children are the hidden cost for our beauty.

Figure 1: Up to 20,000 children are reported to work in the mines across India.

Source: Shanmugan IAS Academy

Mica is a silicate mineral with a layered structure, found as minute scales in granite and other rocks, or as crystals. For decades, mica has been used for daily products from electronics to paints, cosmetics and even toothpaste. However, over the past few years, the cosmetics industry's demands for glittering, shiny, shimmering looks has exploded. As a result, a majority of illegal mica exploitation and trading take place in India rural and poor villages where children as young as five, with small hands ideal to pick and sort the valuable mineral that add up the sparkle in cosmetics.

Figure 2: Map shows the main area of mica mining in Jharkhand/Bihar.

Source: Terre des Hommes and SOMO.

India is reported to produce about 15,000 tonnes of crude and scrap mica a year (The Sydney Morning Herald, 2014). About 70% of the mica produced in India comes from illegal mines that operate completely out of government regulation (Lebsack, 2019). Although India legislation prohitbits children under fourteen working in underground mines (Kate et al, 2016), lack of job opportunities and poverty makes families in the area has no choice but to participate in the mica supply chain.

From NGOs Terre des Hommes and SOMO’s data, an approximate of 20,000 childrens is reported to work in the mines, and 90% of which are illegal. Due to its hazardous working conditions, children can face a number of serious problems related to health and safety. Breathing in dust in mica can cause infection and diseases, long-term exposure may potentially lead to lung cancer. However, the dangerous risk is that underground mines can collapse anytime. In 2016, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi's child protection group Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) noted twenty mica-related death in June, six cases in July; and not all death is reported to the police due to the illegality of the exploitation.

According to SOMO reports, the total export value of mica is estimated to be 1,571,000$ in 2016, were most companies are reluctant to state their consumers' name. Thus, the question lies here is whether cosmetics brands aware of the seriousity of this issues and what have they done to tackle the problem?

Lush Cosmetics has been a pioneer in the industry when they claimed their products are completely mica-free, instead they opt for their own biodegradable shimmer ingredients created in a lab. Meanwhile, such companies like Estee Launder, Yves Rocher, L'Oreal have tackled the problem on the ground by establishing “child-friendly" villages so as to promote education to eliminate poverty and child labour.