Children - Terre des Hommes

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explored, clear design and working plans for the specified
area proposed need to be provided.
Mining Children: Pragmatic Steps
Ahead
1. The establishment of a state level and district level
monitoring committee consisting of all the concerned
departments that have responsibilities to protect the
child, as well as independent civil society organisations to
be involved in monitoring as well as grievance redressal.
This should be formally recognised to represent these
issues to the state and national child/human rights
commissions and respective departments.
2. The Ministry of Mines has to evolve regional plans
with appropriate local governance institutions (district,
block) and the community with clarity in terms of
quantity and quality of ore that will be extracted, the
extent of area involved, demographic profile of this
region, economic planning for extraction that includes
number of workers required, nature of workers (local,
migrant), type of technology, social cost including wages,
estimate of workers and assured work period, providing
(in the case of migrant workers) residential facilities like
housing, basic amenities like drinking water, electricity,
early childhood (anganwadis) and primary education
with quality of education delivered, or in the absence of
these, an NCLP school, toilet, PDS facility and other
requirements for a basic quality of life. The resources for
these must not be drawn upon from public exchequer
but recovered from the promoter.
3. The public sector companies should set an example to
first clean up the situation and redress the destruction
caused to children and their environment in the existing
mines with a clear time frame which will be scrutinised
by the independent committee at regular intervals as
agreed upon. The clean up should also state the budget
allocated by each company for this purpose and provide
details of expenditure incurred, to the committee.
4. A benefit sharing mechanism must be immediately
established so that it is not restricted to immediate
short term monetary relief, but should show long
term sustainability of the communities and workers,
including post-mining land reclamation and livelihood
programmes that have measurable outputs. A share from
the taxes or profits shared by the companies should be
ploughed into these and CWCs for better functioning.
5. New mine leases should not be granted unless significant
clean up and institutional mechanisms are in place. No
private mining leases should be granted in the Scheduled
Areas and the Samatha Judgement should be respected
in its true spirit.
6. The National Commission for the Unorganised
Sector which is proposing the new Social Security
Bill should take into cognizance, the above legal and
policy recommendations, particularly with respect to
the migrant mine workers and include adequate social
security benefits that directly support development and
protection of children.
Conclusions
In order to earnestly implement the above recommendations
and existing safeguards to stand in support of the mining
child, the government should translate the policy and
legal provisions into financial and man power allocations.
Adequate resources have to consciously allocated within
the central and state budgets for the institutional support
programmes for children as well as for regulation and
monitoring, these laws so that true implementation takes
place.
The above legal and policy initiatives cannot be translated
into action without strong advocacy and campaigning from
civil society groups, trade unions, affected communities and
workers and other human rights organisations. The need for
convergence is also a huge responsibility for the civil society
and human rights organisations in order to prioritise the
rights of the child in mining affected areas. Unless a stronger
pressure and lobby on the state players to implement the laws
and to design policies that prioritise children’s development
and protection and not justify the current economic models
that are working to the contrary effect, comes from public
vigilance and lobby, children’s voices from the mine pits will
be difficult to be heard. We hope that this study will be used
as a tool for campaigning by affected communities, NGO’s
and human rights organisations in uphold the rights of the
mining child in India.