Hello, My name is Steven Walley, I’m the Managing Director of London Stone, a UK based natural stone importer and supplier.

No Child Left Behind is a 6 part blog series, written to educate and inform the industry about the root causes of child labour in the Indian Sandstone industry.  The blog also aims to raise awareness of the amazing community led initiatives that are slowly succeeding in eradicating child labour in Budhpura and the surrounding villages and hamlets, where the majority of Sandstone Setts, destined for UK and European markets, are produced.

Last month you heard from Bram Callewier, Director of Belgium based stone importer, Stoneasy.  Bram’s informative blog talked about the historical context of how western companies got involved in the Indian Sandstone industry and how little our understanding was of ethical issues in those “early days”.  You’re now reading part 2 of the 6 part series.  I’m going to be talking about Manjari.  Manjari are the Budhpura based NGO playing a pivotal role in establishing child labour free zones in Budhpura and the surrounding villages & hamlets.  But first, before we go any further we need to understand the complexity of the root causes of child labour.