Children - Terre des Hommes

studies here can help evoke a glimmer of this conscience. We
also hope that the case studies can help us explore legally
binding mechanisms for addressing the issues concerning
children and help review the current policies that directly or
indirectly affect them, and what institutional mechanisms
can be lobbied for, in order to protect the children.
Recommendations
Children live in families and communities. It therefore
becomes difficult to isolate the impacts of any particular
issue on children without also dwelling on impacts on
the environment in which they live and the family and
communities to which they belong. And yet it is also critical
to identify the specific impacts on children themselves
also to gain an understanding of what specific measures
may be required to address their particular needs. The
recommendations arising out of the report are therefore
addressed to all the concerned departments and ministries.
Over-arching recommendations on
children
impacted by mining in a number of ways, and these
impacts must be considered and addressed at all stages
of the mining cycle.
they do ‘belong’ to any one ministry or department.
While the Ministry of Mines is the prime mover of
mining projects and responsible for violation of their
rights, it is not directly responsible for children whose
concerns in the present governance structure are the
responsibility of several other departments in the State
and Ministries in the Centre like Education, Women
and Child Welfare/ Development, Labour, Tribal and
Social Welfare, Health and Police etc. It is essential that
all ministries and departments to address their concerns
and ensure convergence at the legal and policy level as
well of services to ensure justice to the mining child.
years, working in the most hazardous mining activities
in India, and there should be official acknowledgement
of this problem. The governments and society can no
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longer live in denial regarding the existence of children
in labour in mines.
amend them wherever needed to address the specific
needs of mining children.
o
o
guiding principle shall be that a ‘miner shall leave
the mining area in better ecological shape than he
found it’. In the context of the child, the definition of
ecology should include all human-ecology aspects.
Further, the government should not, in the guise of
an “enabler”, abdicate its fundamental responsibilities
to children in mining areas. Especially in the case of
Scheduled Areas, the state must take the principal
responsibility for all aspects of mining projects and
should not transfer this responsibility to private
players. The problems of children in mining areas
cannot be treated in isolation and has to be placed
in the Policy, Programme and Project contexts.
In mining situations many laws and policies come
into force regarding land acquisition, rehabilitation,
environment, pollution, forests, mining processes
etc. Some already exist and others are being
considered. They seldom reflect children’s concerns
and needs. It is essential to mainstream child rights
concerns into policies, amendments to the existing
laws on mining and those that are being proposed
by the respective ministries, whether with regard
to the Rehabilitation Bill, the Mines and Minerals
(Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Bill, the
Social Security Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill, to
name a few.
In the context of child labour, the Mines Act,1952
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and
the Juvenile Justice Care and Protection Act, 2000
(Amendment 2006). However, both the Child
mining. 306 Given the extreme hazardous nature of
the activity, the Mines Act, 1952 and the Mines
306 The CLPRA does not prohibit the employment of children in all mines upto the age of 14 years and allows for children to work in mines beyond the age of
14 years. The Mines Act 1952 and the Mines (Amendment) Act, 1983, lay down that no person below eighteen years of age shall be allowed to work in any
mine or part there of (Section 40) or in any operation connected with or incidental to any mining operation being carried on (Section 45), it simultaneously
allows for children of sixteen years to be apprentices and trainees.