Children - Terre des Hommes

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Social Cost of Displacement
As seen in Salarapentha and Madrangajodi villages, those who
lost land only received cash compensation ranging between
Rs.2 and 10 lakhs, depending on the type of land lost. In most
of the places the villagers complained that they received only
between Rs.60,000 and Rs.70,000 as compensation. However,
this compensation did not enable them to purchase new
land and they have ended up as manual labour in the mines.
Almost all of them are below the poverty line but many do
not hold BPL cards or NREGA cards due to the negligence
of the revenue officials in issuing cards to them.
Tikarapada village, having a population of 1,200, is one of
the worst affected villages due to the mining activities in the
area. Most of the villagers, who are STs, used to depend on
agriculture and forestry as their main occupation. Almost
all the families in this village lost their agricultural land for
mining, and today they are forced to work as daily wage
labour for the mining contractors. Their economic condition
is deplorable because of which their children have dropped
out of school and are also involved in mine labour activities.
Displacement has forced many youth of the villages to shift
to mine labour work. The influence of external migrant
population like truck drivers (where about 60,000 trucks
ply in the area each day), has led to social disturbance among
the adivasi youth who were not vulnerable to addictions like
alcohol, gutka and crimes like theft and pick-pocketing, prior
to mining. This has changed the social cohesion of the adivasi
communities in the young generation.
The village Salarapentha is situated in the heart of five big
mine processing factories and crushers. The village has not
only been badly affected by mining but has also not received
any development facilities or basic amenities. Most of the
villagers had sold their land to the mining companies at very
low prices. The villagers expressed that they hardly got Rs.
1,500 per decimal of land. At least 80–100 acres of land of
the villages are under the mining companies.
Madrangajodi village is situated in the hilly part of the district
and has vast forest cover and mineral resources. Mining
companies have acquired 20–30 acres of land from here and
converted them into mine labour. However, the workers are
paid only Rs.2,000 per month as salary after losing their lands.
Thus, most of the local people who lost land were promised
employment, but the situation is more or less similar to that
of Madrangajodi village.
On one side, the socio-economic condition of the villagers
is below the poverty line, but on the other side, government
programmes like widow pensions, BPL cards or NREGA
do not reach the community. Only 15–20 women are able
to get the widow pension and a few families have BPL
ration cards.
Another major problem of the village is alcohol. As mining
companies are hand in glove with the police and excise
personnel, they have many liquor shops in the area, thus
making the community and workers vulnerable to alcohol.
Here it was found that not only men, women and young girls
are also addicted, due to the heavy work load in the mines.
Impact of Mining on Primary
Education of Children in the Region:
Implications on Child Labour
Following tables give population and other details of villages
covered under the study, both from Census sources as well
as from field interviews. The increase in population in the
primary data could be due to the fact that it is almost 10 years
since the census data was collected. The Census 2001 data, the
school enrolment data from the DISE cards and the school
drop out rates from primary data show that a considerable
number of children are out of school and working in various
forms of child labour. For example, in Bolani village there are
650–700 children under 18 years as per local communities
but the school enrolment for this village is only 480, which
implies that at least 100–150 children are out of school.
Khasia has a minor population of 700 but the enrolment data
only gives 143 children. There are only 78 children enrolled
in Tanto village whereas, the under 18 population is around
250. As in other places, some children are also attending
schools and working in the informal activities, part time. The
census data shows that majority of the children are from ST
communities, with the SC children being the next largest in
number. Table 2.30 provides Census 2001 data and Table
2.31 gives primary data collected on population. Table 2.32
gives comparative information on primary data collected and
DISE report card 2008.