International. Coating manufacturers and pigment suppliers join forces with other members of the mica supply chain and NGOs focused on child labour to create the Responsible Mica Initiative (RMI), a global initiative aimed at establishing a responsible and sustainable mica supply chain, and eradicating child labour in mica mining in India.
Fanny Fremont, executive director of RMI recalls that in 2017, 20 companies and NGOs established this initiative, to eliminate child labor in the supply of mica by 2022, by addressing the problems of extreme poverty and political instability in the northeastern states of Bihar and Jharkhand in the Asian country.
Thus, RMI members participate in a mica mapping protocol that links the ore in their products to individual mines and processors. At the same time, RMI partnered with an Indian labour practice expert to develop environmental, health and safety standards, including labour practices prohibiting child labour, which will need to be adopted by mines and processors.
The second pillar of rmi's programme focuses on empowering and supporting the communities that supply the mica workforce, with eight Indian NGOs working to improve the quality of village schools, provide better health care to women and children, and identify additional livelihoods to reduce mica dependence in villages. For the first half of 2018, the program reached 80 villages and has benefited more than 5,300 families.
So far, RMI has more than fifty members who are its only source of funding. "We invite members of the coatings industry, their suppliers and their customers, such as automakers, to join this initiative and be part of the solution," Fremont says.
For more information about RMI, visit www.responsible-mica-initiative.com.
