Children - Terre des Hommes

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the impacts are visibly evident with respect to the displaced
communities, to juxtapose this against the proposed mining
areas like Kasipur (UAIL project) which is very close to
NALCO and has the same socio-economic background.
These case studies bring out issues related to displacement,
rehabilitation and the constitutional rights of adivasi children
when faced with a complete reversal of their resource base and
indigenous cultures.
The peaceful adivasi belt of Keonjhar, which was once the
pride of Orissa tourism, has now gained notoriety as the
hotbed of crime, corruption, violence and smuggling after large
corporations and contractors started plundering the areas like
Joda and Barbil for minerals. We studied the impacts that
this transition has had on the children living in this region,
which can be compared to the situation of mining in Bellary,
Karnataka.
Sundergarh in western Orissa is also an adivasi area where
mining of dolomite and limestone has been happening since
pre-independence and impacts are again clearly measurable,
especially with a large number of adolescent girls working in
the mines for ridiculously low wages.
The status of mining in Orissa alone and the impacts on
people, particularly children, can be taken as an indicator
for the status of mining-affected communities in the rest of
the country. Orissa is also one of the poorest states in India
with low human development indices especially in the regions
where mining has been taking place. If mining, as projected,
is a vehicle of economic development, what we saw in Orissa
is far from reflected in the lives of people living and working in
the mines. The general development pattern in the state and
the case studies here speak for themselves.
Impacts of Displacement on
Children in Damanjodi by the
National Aluminium Company
Limited’s Bauxite Mining Project
Rajesh (name changed) is 15 years old and comes from the village
of Janiguda. He works in a roadside restaurant at Dumuriput of
Damanjodi. His family lost all their land for the NALCO project
and converted his father, who did not get a job in the company,
into an alcoholic. Having spent all the compensation money on
liquor, the father has left the family on the streets. Rajesh dropped
out of school and had to come to Damanjodi town in search of
work to support his family. He earns around Rs.1,200 per month
while working in the hotel and sends home around Rs.1,000 every
month. He says,”Work in the hotel is difficult and there is no time
for rest except after 12 in the night every day”.
Source: Interview carried out in Dumuriput, Damanjodi, February 2010.
Koraput is one of the poorest districts in Orissa and is a
Scheduled Area having 50 per cent ST (585,830 out of
1,180,637) and 13 per cent SC (153,932 out of 1,180,637)
population. Undivided Koraput was a vast region of
thick deciduous forests and fertile agricultural lands with
traditional food crops and shifting cultivation practised by
the adivasis. The adivasis cultivated two crops a year on rainfed
irrigation with the fundamental objective of subsistence
and food security. Forestry and collection of forest produce
to sell in the local markets was the other main source of
livelihood. After independence, Koraput and its neighbouring
districts bear testimony to several development projects and
industrialisation that led to land alienation, forced migration
and serious impacts on the natural resources and livelihoods
of the local people, particularly the adivasis. Hydro projects
like Upper Indravati, Balimela, Kolab, Jolaput reservoirs drove
out thousands of families from their villages and homes, not
once but multiple times. Setting up of the HAL factory,
NALCO and other ancillary industries further reduced the
local population to landlessness and poverty.
The bauxite mining project and its township completely
changed the socio-economic fabric of the adivasis. The
meetings with village leaders, Project Affected Person (PAP)
unions and group discussions with women in the displacement
(DP) camps and affected villages reflect the deplorable status
of the local people and the condition of the children whose
families were directly or indirectly affected, behind the
apparent urbanisation witnessed around Damanjodi town.
Our effort here was to understand the impacts that mining
has had on the lives of children whose families were displaced
by NALCO and those living in this mining region and how it
has affected their health, literacy, education, social protection,
economic security and legal rights.
Prior to mining, the region had vast natural resources on
which the adivasis depended for their survival. Development
intervention from the government whether for education,
medical support or economic upliftment, was negligible and
the adivasis barely received any benefits. Mining was declared
as the need of the hour for the nation as well as for the local
population and it was meant to bring economic prosperity
for both and therefore, the NALCO bauxite project was