Children - Terre des Hommes

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Conclusions
The three micro-level case studies in the three districts of
Cuddapah, Visakhapatnam and Chittoor were studied from
the perspective of understanding the life of the children
of mine workers and quarry workers. The three studies
show how transient the life of quarry workers is, without
certainty of work and without sustainable livelihoods. The
sharp correlation to this economic activity is the presence
of an almost equal number of children, working in highly
unremunerative and inhuman conditions. Particularly in
Chittoor district, the life of the children in the traditional
Vaddi community is highly exploitative, with high levels of
school drop-out both due to poverty and due to the poor
quality of education. This points a finger directly at the state
responsibility in providing fundamental right of education
since the enactment of the new Right to Education Act
2009. Merely setting up a primary school in these areas
will not ensure that the fundamental right is met unless it
is addressed with the quality and child-centred focus that it
can bring in order to motivate the child to go to school rather
than to the mine site. The fact that many of the children in
the quarries in Visakhapatnam district are also enrolled in
school is a deceptive reality, as most of them do not attend
regularly or do not have opportunity for education that
can see them through high school. The example of quarry
sites in Cuddapah show that there is a need for urgent
attention on how the state will meet the needs of these small
numbers of migrant children, who, for no fault of theirs, are
not living anywhere close to the child support institutions
like anganwadis or primary schools. The need to provide
education as well as a healthy habitat where they are not
exposed to the pollution and made vulnerable to getting
sucked into mine labour, are issues for several departments
including child welfare, labour, health, education and also
mines, to develop cohesive and coordinated policies that will
effectively do justice to these migrant children.
(Acknowledgements: The study in Chittoor district was
done in partnership with MASS, Palamaneru and we
acknowledge the contribution of B.Sunanda and her team
in facilitating the field visits and in sharing their information
and work details with us for this study.)