The US has proposed to determine whether Indian carpets are produced by forced or indentured child labour, while it added cotton and sugarcane to the already existing child labour produced list from India. The US Department of Labor has announced its initial determination with regard to Indian carpets as it released the sixth edition of the 'List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor' as mandated by the US Congress.

Stakeholders have been asked to submit their comments on the proposed determination by January 30, 2015. The US also added cotton and sugarcane to the already existing child labour produced list from India, which now has crossed the two dozen mark. According to the report released by US Department of Labor more than two dozen Indian items are produced by employing child labour. These include bidis, brassware, bricks, carpets, cotton, embellished textiles, fireworks, footwear, garments, gems, glass bangles, hybrid cotton seed, incense, leather goods and accessories, locks, matches, rice, silk fabric, silk, thread, soccer balls, stones, sugarcane and thread/yarn.

Nearly 11 goods made with child labour have been added to the sixth edition of the said list. These are garments from Bangladesh, cotton and sugarcane from India, vanilla from Madagascar, fish from Kenya and Yemen, alcoholic beverages, meat, textiles, and timber from Cambodia, and palm oil from Malaysia. Electronics from Malaysia has been added to the list for being produced with forced labor.

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