WHO published its World health statistics report 2025, revealing the deeper health impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on loss of lives, longevity and overall health and well-being. In just two years, between 2019 and 2021, global life expectancy fell by 1.8 years—the largest drop in recent history— reversing a …
At a time when they should be going to school, weavers' children are helping their parents to make ends meet. Since able-bodied adults are mostly busy with loom work, and elderly people are unable to perform fine work due to failing eye sight, children are roped in for making new …
the Jammu and Kashmir (j&k;) High Court (hc) has asked the state government to regulate the trade of shahtoosh shawl-making and shearing of Tibetan antelopes in such a way that the art and livelihood of artisans is protected. Earlier, the hc had passed an order directing the j&k; government to …
The German ban on the import of Indian textiles containing azo-dyes, said to leech out carcinogenic amines, sent shockwaves through the Indian handloom industry. But this proved to be instrumental in the reinvension of India's ancient knowledge of eco-friendly natural dyes. Mudapathi Balakrishnan, a textile trader in Kannur, Kerala, was …
While the Uttar Pradesh carpet industry is under increasing pressure to ban child labour, young children in Pali in Rajasthan continue to work in appalling conditions in the 1,000-odd dye and print industries. Children screen-print sarees, bedsheets and bed covers. Factory owner Sunil Chaubra admits, "We prefer to hire children …
THE INSISTENCE of foreign importers on not buying Indian carpets woven by children has begun to tell at every level in a Rs 750-crore industry in which weavers, exporters and the government have vital stakes. German consumers, the largest buyers of Indian carpets, insist that the carpets they buy must …
