Children - Terre des Hommes

21
migrate to plain areas or are converted to landless labourers
even if they continue to live in the Scheduled Areas, they
no longer enjoy the privilege of the Fifth Schedule as far as
land is concerned. This is a constitutional violation of the
rights of the adivasi child. 32
Displacement
Mining areas are inhabited by people. Taking over land for
mining means displacing them. These forced evictions, when
land is taken over for extraction, or for setting up plants
and factories, uproots and dislocates entire communities.
Children are forced out of schools, lose access to healthcare
and other basic services and are forced to live in alien places.
Most often, there is little or no rehabilitation effort made
by the government. This has a long-term impact on the
displaced children.
Across the world, tribal (or indigenous) populations are
being displaced for mining activities. Mining struggles in
indigenous communities have been witnessed in numerous
countries, from Canada to the Philippines, and from Uganda
to Papua New Guinea and to the USA, which massacred
native Indians, 33 first for the gold rush and later, for other
minerals like coal and uranium. Mineral resources are
often found in places inhabited by indigenous populations.
Therefore, when mining activity begins, these communities
are displaced from the hills and forests where they live. They
then lose access not only to their homes and land, but also to
their traditional livelihoods. In most places, compensation
has been wholly inadequate and tribal communities are forced
into poverty. Their capacity for subsistence survival is often
destroyed — tribal symbols of prosperity in subsistence are
not recognised as anything that have worth or value. Mines
and factories have reduced self-reliant, self-respecting tribal
families to living like refugees in ill-planned rehabilitation
colonies, while rendering many others homeless. 35
The National Mineral Policy, 2008, recognises that
“Mining operations often involve acquisition of land held
by individuals including those belonging to the weaker
sections.” It highlights the need for suitable Relief and
Rehabilitation (R&R) packages and states that “Special
care will be taken to protect the interest of host and
indigenous (tribal) populations through developing
models of stakeholder interest based on international
best practice. Project affected persons will be protected
through comprehensive relief and rehabilitation packages
in line with the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement
Policy.” However, several problems with respect to the
R&R policy, such as under-estimation of project costs and
losses, under-financing of R&R, non-consultation with
affected communities and improper implementation of the
promised rehabilitation, are some of the glaring failures on
the part of the state with respect to mining projects. This is
well reflected, for example, in the case study of the resettled
camps of NALCO in Orissa.
Despite the grand statements made in the National
Mineral Policy, 2008, and the existence finally of a National
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy, thousands of people
will continue to lose their land and end up in worse situations
of poverty if the government continues to prioritise profits
from mining over the rights of communities to live on
their land. One recent example of this has been the struggle
by the Dongria Kondh tribe in Orissa to prevent a British
mining company, Vedanta, from displacing them. The
groups have lived for many generations in this area and the
Niyamgiri mountain is considered by them to be a sacred
Rajesh (name changed) is fifteen 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, which 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 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 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 Damanjodi, Orissa, 3 February 2010.
32. Samatha, A Study on the Status and Problems of Tribal Children in Andhra Pradesh, 2007.
33.
34.
35.
Carlos D. Da Rosa, James S. Lyon, Philip M. Hocker, Golden Dreams, Poisoned Streams, Published by Mineral Policy Center, August 1997.
Bhanumathi Kalluri, Ravi Rebbapragada, 2009, Displaced by Development - Confronting Marginalization and Gender Injustice - The Samatha Judgement -
Upholding the Rights of Adivasi Women, Sage Publications
Vidhya Das, Human Rights, Inhuman Wrongs – Plight of Tribals in Orissa, Published in Economic and Political Weekly, 14 March 1998.
36. Government of India, National Mineral Policy, 2008.
37.
See case study report on NALCO project-affected community in Koraput, Orissa.