Children - Terre des Hommes

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but not the actual economic lives of the adivasis and their
children. Unless the Ministry of Mines imposes a strict cleanup
by its public sector companies in the existing mines, with
clean-up starting from responsibility to the basic needs of
the children, mining can never translate into any real socially
sustainable development framework.
It is common knowledge that mining is not sustainable for the
communities or the environment, but when the state policies
are geared towards exploiting these resources for meeting the
nation’s energy requirements, the least that the state is dutybound
to take care of, is to reduce the negative impacts and
destruction of the lives of the people living here. Children
should be the first priority for this instead of disputing their
suffering. Here again, the state has to demonstrate its respect
for the laws of the Constitution laid down for the protection
of the Scheduled Areas, whether it is the Fifth Schedule laws,
the 73 Amendment/Panchayat Raj (Extension to Scheduled
Areas) Act, the United Nations Declarations on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples or the Environment Protection Act
of 1986. All these Acts and agreements are universally being
violated by the state. Every mining project in our adivasi areas
is an example of this violation.
(Acknowledgements: This case study was done in partnership
with Swaraj Foundation, Hazaribagh which working for the
rights of adivasis and displaced communities in this region.
We acknowledge the assistance of Mr. Arun Anand and his
staff in coordinating the field visits for the data collection and
field interviews.)