THE MAKE UP INDUSTRY’S DARKEST SECRET

(A CASE STUDY OF JHARKHAND’S MICA MINES)

TERM PAPER

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

FOR THE DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF ARTS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

(HONOURS SCHOOL)

SUBMITTED To: SUBMITTED BY

Sharanpreet Kaur Gursirat Kaur

Assistant Professor
School of Social Science

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GURU NANAK DEV UNIVERSITY

AMRITSAR
2020
Introduction
The low hills of Jharkhand shimmer in the afternoon sun, but all that glitters is not gold. The
precious mineral lode of these mountains, in India's poor, remote east, does not bring riches to
those who mine it. Instead, the mica that gives sparkle to the world means only grinding work,
and an unremitting, unprofitable obligation to do more of it. Mica is a mineral coveted for
centuries for its unique luster. But its myriad uses in modern products now make it a valuable
commodity. It is mica that gives make-up products such as eye shadow, nail polish, lipstick and
concealer their shimmer. It is aimed that almost 60 per cent high-quality mica that goes into
cosmetics comes from India.

Mica gives automotive paints their shine, is used in building materials, and as an insulator in
electronic chips. It is found in lasers and radar. Jharkhand has one of the largest known mica
deposits in the world. The mineral here is easily accessible, high quality and in demand from all
corners of the globe. But the industry here is little better than a black market, dependent on a
huge unskilled workforce, forced into working for lower and lower prices. Profits are made off
the backs of children.1

Indiaʼs Not-So-Shiny History of Mica

For over hundred years, India has enjoyed the monopoly in the production and export of sheet
mica in the world. Mica processing is a labour intensive activity requiring special skills. The art
of manual processing of mica has been acquired by the Indian workers through generations and
has become a cottage industry in the mica mining areas of Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and
Rajasthan. As per the last year's worldwide mica production data, India is the eighth-largest
producer of mica. Its annual production is pegged at 16,000 metric tons. The largest mica reserve
in the country is in Andhra Pradesh (41 per cent) followed by Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra,
Orissa, Rajasthan and Telangana.

Locals have mined mica in this part of India for millennia, using it both for decoration and
Ayurvedic medicine. But everything changed in the late 19th century, when British colonizers
discovered the valuable mineral and nicknamed the area “the mica belt”. By the time India won
independence from British rule in 1947, the country was approaching a count of 700 mines filled
with 20,000 workers.2

1
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.refinery29.com/amp/en-us/2019/05/229746/mica-
inmakeup-mining-child-laborindia-controversy

2
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1XU04I
Then came the fall: The wealthy, mica hungry USSR collapsed, creating a mini mica recession,
and eventually the Indian government stopped monitoring the mines altogether. The government
made mining illegal in the 1980s in the name of preventing deforestation, but failed to actually
close mines or redirect workers to new industries, creating an economic vacuum that still
persists.

Today mica is in its second golden period with China picking up where the USSR left off.
Roughly 70% of mica produced in India comes from illegal mines that are totally unregulated by
the government. With no other industries in the region, many families have no choice but to
continue working in crumbling mines under a new, informal organization sometimes referred to
as the “mica mafia”. Family mining is common, and a young child’s small stature and nimble
hands also make them valuable for entering narrow mine shafts and sorting smaller pieces of
mica. It’s a classic case of the resource curse, where developing economies are worse off for
their natural resources because of exploitation by the developed world.3

Low production, high export

Interestingly, India's annual mica production figure is lower than what it exports to other
countries in a year. According to the Indian Minerals Yearbook 2016, exports of mica decreased
in the country from 141,110 tons in 2014-15 to 135,805 tons in 2015-16. These exports were
mainly to China (62 per cent), Saudi Arabia (9 per cent), Belgium (6 per cent), Japan (5 per cent)
and USA (3 per cent). But, against the export figure of 135,805 tons, India's total annual mica
production is about 15,000 tons only. In 2013-14, India produced 21,412 tons of mica, but
exported 127,882 tons. Next year, in 2014-15, about 12,488 tons mica was produced. But, export
was 140,960 tons. According to the claims made by The Indian Minerals Yearbook 2016, the
reasons for such a huge difference in the quantity of exports and production may be attributed to
the old stocks (mine head or otherwise) which are not reported. In spite of over hundred years of
mica mining operations, the local tribal people have remained impoverished. People in
Jharkhand campaigned and fought to get a separate state so that the tribal population of the state
can get ownership to its natural resources. The state has been carved out, but exploitation
continues. The tribal people live on resource rich lands, but are still very poor.4

According to the locals, the rate of dhibra collected by these people depends on the quality of
dhibra. The thick stone type dhibra fetches Rs 10 a kilo. Poorer quality is sold for Rs 5 a kilo.
Through dhibra one person earns Rs 10-20 a day. He alone cannot feed the entire family. Hence,
all family members collect mica scrap so that the family can earn Rs 50-100 a day. Working
conditions in these illegal mica mines are harsh. A person spending eight hours a day inside the

3
Ibid page 1
4
https://www.theage.com.au/ national/indias-mica-minesthe-shameful-truth-behindmineral-
makeupsshimmer-20140118-311wk.html
rat-hole mines collects 15-20 kg of dhibra, which is sold for Rs 15-16 a kg (it is better grade
mica). Payment for dhibra comes once a week. Poor working conditions mean huge health costs.
There are people in these areas who suffer from tuberculosis because of working in the mica
mines. Some got treatment and have survived. But many have perished, too. While tribals earn
Rs 5 a kilo for dhibra, the cost of mica keeps increasing as it exchanges hands.

Exploitative Child Labour in Illegal Mica Mines

For thousands of children who work as labourers, picking dhibra (mica waste) in the vast lands
of Bihar and Jharkhand is a routine affair. There's almost no shot at education because the
priority is to feed the family. These mines are a death trap but children as young as four get
inside the narrow tunnels of these mines only to earn a few rupees on a daily basis. The global
beauty industry is among the largest consumers of mica and is still thriving on mica collected by
children, only to add sparkle to their products. The National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights said it has observed that a section of children in the mica mining areas are deprived of
opportunities and have started working as labourers to supplement their family income. The
survey said that there are 4,545 children in the age group of six to 14 years in the area of
Jharkhand reported as not attending school majorly to collect mica scraps.

Most of these children come from a third-world place in India – Koderma, known for mica
mines, naxalism and child labour. Rampant child labour in illegal mica mines during the dry
months, right before the arrival of monsoon, the poor villagers in Jharkhandʼs Koderma have
only one source of income, and it becomes a family occupation, employing children as young as
four years of age.

The ground in Koderma is full of fine particles of mica that sparkle in the sun. Digging deeper,
these fine mica particles become bigger. Children armed with hammer and a basket are
considered apt for the narrow tunnels in these mines. However, the danger of being buried alive
with every knock of hammer grows manifold. Despite the threat, bringing food on plate is the
most imperative job for the family, and they don’t mind deploying their children for the
treacherous work. And of course, education is out of the window because poverty flourishes in
the mica-rich areas.5

Eventually the raw material excavated by these children is collected by a broker who sells it to
an exporter, who then delivers it to a manufacturer, typically in China. It’s then milled into fine,
pearly pigment that is purchased by international beauty companies to add a reflective finish to
eye shadow, blush, lipstick, and more. Everyone in the supply chain financially benefits from

5
https://www.gaonconnection.com/read/father-had-come-to-see-grandma-what-did-we-know-
that-suicide-will-do-47635?infinitescroll=1
obscuring the origin of the mica through this complicated turn of hands, because it keeps costs
low by allowing exporters to exploit the people mining it.

Mica linked to child labor is littered throughout the cosmetics industry taking up residency in
everything from high end eye shadows palettes to drugstore lipsticks. Listed as ‘mica’,
‘potassium aluminum silicate and ‘CI 77019,ʼ on ingredient lists, its mica that gives body lotion
or eye cream a light glow, makes toothpaste look extra bright, or provides BB cream with a
subtle radiance. Unlike chunky glitter often made from plastic, mica’s delicate shimmer is one of
the pillars of modern makeup — and 60% of the high-quality mica that goes into cosmetics
comes from India, mostly from neighboring regions of Bihar and Jharkhand, where child mining
and worker exploitation is the norm.6

Lives at Stake
Since using children to mine mica is illegal, the people running these mines are operating under
the radar, and there are very few safety regulations, like reinforced walls or protective
equipment. Mine collapses are quite common, children use hazardous equipment, like picks and
hammers.

Breathing in the dust in mica mines can cause infections, disease, and permanent damage to
lungs, but there’s a much more catastrophic risk that worries locals most. In an incident Surma
Kumari, 11, and her sister Lakmi, 14, were working in a mine when it began to crumble. When
they tried to run, Surma got stuck under a rock and Lakmi was buried under a mountain of
debris. Their mother and father were in the village when they heard there had been an accident,
but by the time they got to the mine, Lakmi had died.

Over a year later, Surma was still dealing with the aftermath of two broken feet, a fractured leg,
and damage to her spine. Her father borrowed money to get her basic medical care, and she spent
weeks in the hospital followed by six months on bed rest at home. One of her legs was now
longer than the other, and she couldn’t run or play. She stopped mining and returned to school
after she recovered; the only bright spot from the entire catastrophe. The deaths are so common
there. A Thomson Reuters Foundation expose in 2016 found that children were dying in illegal
mines and their deaths covered up with families given "blood money" to be silent cover and keep
producing the mineral. For each person who dies, the traders who control this particular cluster
of mines give 30,000 rupees. That was it; they don’t do anything for safety.7

A 2016 investigation by Reuters found that not only had children regularly died in these mines,
but many of the deaths had been covered up by local officials, making an actual fatality count
difficult to nail down. Not much has changed since that investigation. According to estimates,
6
https://www.flare.com/beauty/mica-makeup-child-labour/

7
Ibid page 1
there are between 10 and 20 deaths in mines every month, a conservative number based on what
is heard on the ground.

Under reported deaths due to fear of losing livelihood

The revelation by Thomson Reuters Foundation in 2016 that seven children had died in two
months prompted pledges by multinationals sourcing mica from three Indian states to clean up
their supply chains, and authorities vowed to accelerate plans to legalize and regulate the sector.
But returning to two major mica hubs in Jharkhand state in the year2019 - Koderma and Giridih -
the Thomson Reuters Foundation found mining was largely unchecked and that people were
continuing to work and die in illegal mines. Police records, local newspaper articles, and
interviews with charity workers, officials, and eyewitnesses and relatives revealed 19 deaths in
mica mines since 2018 but only six were reported to the authorities. Three of the dead were
children. While the spotlight on the sector has led to more children going to school, campaigners
and police said it had made villagers less likely to report accidents and deaths in a trade they
know to be illegal, fearing arrest or losing their income. The Jharkhand state government said
activists’ recorded five child deaths in mica mines in 2018, but none till the next few months.
Several people whose relatives were said to have died mining mica denied the claims made by
their communities although local police described a handful of cases where deaths that appeared
to be linked to mica were hidden or rebuffed by families. According to Police, they had never
taken action against mica pickers but growing awareness of the illegality of the trade had made it
far less likely for deaths and accidents to be reported to them. The fear of reporting deaths or
accidents shows the people’s fear of losing their only source of livelihood.8

Beauty Brands Need To Be More Transparent About Their Supply Chains

The beauty companies need to adopt supply chain transparency legislation which would require
them to disclose where their mica comes from.

Most cosmetic brands don’t want to talk about mica mining, no matter where they land but UK-
based Lush Cosmetics has been very vocal about its decision. When the brand was tipped off that
its supply chain might be dirty in 2014, Lush reps reached out to its suppliers. They were told
that they couldn't visit the mines without armed accompaniment, they couldn't get the
independent verification, or the traceability in the origin of it. The brand decided to start
swapping in synthetic mica, a biodegradable shimmer pigment created in a lab and announced its
products were totally mica-free as of last to last year.

8
https://news.trust.org/item/20181205103409-t17eq
But some experts argue that this ‘cut and run' tactic can make the situation even worse for the
people being exploited. As stated by says Aysel Sabahoglu, former senior technical advisor of
children's rights at Terre des Hommes, a Dutch watchdog group monitoring the mica issue India,
Pulling out will not solve any of their issue. The brands that have contributed to the current
situation have a responsibility to clean up the supply chain and become involved in social
empowerment programs for those communities. It’s important to stay in to ensure that the people
who are sourcing this mica get a decent price for the raw materials they mine. Only then the
cycle of poverty will be broken.

Lush defends its position by saying that its impact was small. For them it wasn't a comfortable
and easy decision to walk away, because once a brand walks away, it doesn’t have that sphere of
influence anymore.9

Most of the biggest cosmetic conglomerates in the world, like LʼOréal which owns brands like
Maybelline, Urban Decay, Essie, Nyx, and more have gone the other direction. They believe that
discontinuing the use of Indian mica would further weaken the local situation. LʼOréal has
committed to the continued sourcing of natural mica from India in order to allow already
impoverished communities to keep generating income. To do so, LʼOréal ensured traceability
and transparency of its whole supply chain to guarantee fair and responsible mica. The brand
said it only buys from suppliers who source from independently-verified, gated mines where
children are not present.

But here’s the catch: Experts with representatives on the ground remind that it’s still too early for
any guarantees. Mica collected by children is easily, and often, sold to foreign entities under the
license of a legal mine; traders just lie about where they got it. The majority of mica mining
takes place in Jharkhand and Bihar, but there are hardly any legal mines in these states, so the
mica from these states is exported using the licenses of legal mines in Andhra Pradesh and
Rajasthan. The reality is the supply chains around mica simply aren’t developed enough for
anyone to ensure that children are not working, let alone make claims about the safety or wages
for adults. Standards have been set by the Indian government, but the sources say that third party
certification companies suffer from corruption, and there are issues throughout the current
verification processes.

Many brands have recognized the complex, deep-seated reliance the industry has created in these
communities and have joined working groups in an effort to band together for change, but
progress has been slow.10 One such group is the Responsible Mica Initiative, or RMI, a cross
industry “do tank” that was started in 2017 to create an ethical, transparent supply chain by 2022.

9
https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.indiatimes.com/amp/news/india/exploitativechild-labour-
in-india-sillegal-mica-mines-isbehind-the-shimmer-inyour-makeup-374431.html

10
https://www.google.co.in/ amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1XU04I
Cosmetic conglomerates like LʼOréal, Estée Lauder Companies, LVMH, Coty, Chanel, and
Shiseido have all joined.

RMI is totally funded by member dues, which are determined on a sliding scale of the joining
company’s annual revenues. In the year 2018, this ranged from $8,400 for brands that make less
than $56 million per year to $62,000 for companies that make more than 10 billion, a fourfold
increase from 2017 to accommodate RMIʼs growing operation. That adds up to over $900,000
for RMI to work with in 2018 alone. As stated by Frémont, executive director of RMI the 20
founding members want to create a permanent solution to the problem. They want not only to get
kids out of mines, but also address the underlying causes with a holistic approach that would
improve their villages, set sound working standards, and regulate the entire mica sector.

RMIʼs team is only comprised of three people Frémont is based in France and she has two
employees in India and spent its first two years developing its strategy, but things seem to be
ramping up. RMI released its first report in March 2019, and is acting on the goals it carefully
laid out. They're supporting schooling for children, better health care for children and women,
and helping villages expand their means of livelihood beyond mica mining.

To address a complicated issue, many companies are turning to India based nonprofits who
intimately understand the unique cultural, socioeconomic, and governmental factors that drive
this issue as well, some of which are also part of RMI.11

Those fighting for change

There are charities that are working to stop child labour in the mica mining industry,
including Anti-Slavery International, Terre des Hommes, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s
Foundation, Thomas Reuters Foundation and World Vision Canada.

One initiative that is boasting impressive returns requires the labor-intensive process of going
village by village to mobilize the children but the results speak for themselves. Organizations
like the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation and Bachpan Bachao Andolan are working to
create “child-friendly” villages that turn children into their own activists by giving them a voice.

Through a series of hands on meetings, they empower kids to understand their rights so they can
assemble to fight the issues that impact them most: child marriage, teen pregnancy, child labor,
and a lack of teachers and schools. They also assist parents in finding additional revenue streams
to support the family while the children are in school.12

Ibid page 6
11

https://www.theage.com.au/national/indias-mica-minesthe-shameful-truth-behindmineral-
12

makeupsshimmer-20140118-311wk.html
It’s the kind of work that earned Kailash Satyarthi the 2014 Nobel Prize. His foundations (KSCF
and BBA) have freed over 80,000 children from child labor across industries, including 3,000
from mica mines.

As stated by Anna Klein, SVP of global corporate affairs for the Estée Lauder Companies,
partnering with BBA was the right choice for its many brands, which includes M.A.C., Clinique,
Smash box, Bobbi Brown, and many more. Estée Lauder Companies decided not to pull out of
India when it learned of its connection to child labor practices back in 2005. Instead, it joined
BBA on the ground to help create change from the inside out.

Now, on top of giving children an education, BBA delivers legal services to help connect the
villages with their government to get the healthcare, education, and infrastructure that they have
been denied.

One of the most important parts of the child friendly villages is the Child Parliament, a group of
young representatives from each village who come together to discuss pertinent issues. KSCF is
also working toward getting the government to crack down on exploitation by legalizing mining
once again, but these child friendly villages have proven to be the most effective method for real
change.13

Hope for the Future

The speed of progress lies in the hands of every person who touches the supply chain, from
miners to consumers, and until change is widespread; these kids continue to toil in the mines.
They haven’t gone to school in years.

As claimed by the local people their family’s whole life would change if they could sell the mica
for between 40 and 50 rupees per kg, which would make them between $28 and $37 per day.
They could send the kids to school, run their household, and construct their home a little better,
as they say, but they remain skeptical of that ever happening. While some brands report that
child labor has or will be fully removed from their supply chains, many decline to comment on
how much adults are being paid who work in the Indian mines, a major roadblock to true
transparency.

Ultimately, we all have far more power than we might realize. Donations or fund raisers can be
planned for groups like KSCF, Terre des Hommes, or BBA as a start, then pressure beauty
brands to be transparent about where they get their mica. Having a supply chain linked to child
labor is bad for business, even a few tweets asking questions about a brand’s supply chain can
create widespread conversations that could ultimately drive real momentum and change.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/indias-mica-minesthe-shameful-truth-behindmineral-
13

makeupsshimmer-20140118-311wk.html
Seeking of information is the responsibility of the consumers. Consumers have the right to know
if they are buying child labor free. The brands can be tweeted, DM, called or wrote to, until the
information is made available about the exact source of mica and what the brands are doing to
help the communities that have mined the beauty industry’s mica for decades.
References

https://www.google.co.in/ amp/s/www.refinery29.com/ amp/en-us/ 2019/05/229746/mica-

inmakeup-mining-child-laborindia-controversy

https://www.google.co.in/ amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/ article/amp/idUSKBN1XU04I

https://www.theage.com.au/ national/indias-mica-minesthe-shameful-truth-behindmineral-
makeupsshimmer-20140118-311wk.html

https://www.gaonconnection.com/read/father-had-come-to-see-grandma-what-did-we-know-
that-suicide-will-do-47635?infinitescroll=1

https://www.flare.com/beauty/mica-makeup-child-labour/

https://news.trust.org/item/20181205103409-t17eq

https://www.google.co.in/ amp/s/www.indiatimes.com/ amp/news/india/exploitativechild-labour-

in-india-sillegal-mica-mines-isbehind-the-shimmer-inyour-makeup-374431.html