Children - Terre des Hommes

22
site. However, Vedanta has established an alumina refinery
on the top of the mountain, illegally encroaching forestlands
without clearances from the Ministry of Environment and
Forests, in this area rich with the mineral, bauxite. Although
the company claims that the refinery will bring “significant
employment and economic livelihood for the local people” 38
the reality is that local communities have lost their land
and their most sacred place of worship and they are living
in a state of corporate intimidation affecting the life of the
children and youth who are innocent victims of what has
been allowed to happen by the state. Similar is the situation
of the adivasis in Kasipur who are caught in the midst of
daily conflict because of the tensions created by the mining
company.
Neither the National Mineral Policy, 2008, nor the
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy mention children,
and therefore fail to recognise or acknowledge the ways in
which children are specifically impacted by displacement
for mining. There are also serious protection issues arising
from the displacement of children. Studies have shown that
children who are displaced are more vulnerable to trafficking
and other forms of exploitation.
Some people have been displaced in mining areas multiple
times, yet have received no compensation and critically no
alternative livelihood provision. The World Bank has made
a distinction between “resettlement” and “rehabilitation”.
Displaced people face impoverishment risks beyond merely
the loss of property. Rehabilitation entails more than just
compensation and relocation. It involves ensuring that
people have income streams, livelihoods and social systems
restored and that affected people and their children become
better off as a result of the project.
However, this has rarely been the case with mining-induced
displacement in India. Members of the Dongria Kondh
tribe explain how they have lost their self-sufficiency as
a result of Vedanta’s project in Orissa and now they are
struggling to survive. One woman says she used to grow
this land and received no compensation: “The way we were
living, we were self-sufficient, and we had lived like that for
generations,” she says. “We could have lived like that for
many more generations too. Because of these people, we
cannot. But we will still fight to continue the old ways.”
The tribe fears that once mining starts, they will lose their
livelihood completely. They say, “Once they start mining, the
mountain will be bulldozed and the rivers will dry up and
our livelihood will be lost. We will become fish out of water.
We don’t know how to adapt and survive and our way of
living is not available in the cities. We will be extinct.”
Mining companies claim that they create jobs and raise
the standard of living for the local population. However,
experience shows that this is not the case. In most of the
areas visited, the mining company jobs were not going to
local people, but instead staff were being brought in from
outside. In Jharkhand, with the Urimari coal-mining project,
we found that none of the employees of the company were
local tribal people. Instead, the local people work as casual
labour, hired to carry out tasks such as loading and unloading
trucks. Many of the mineworkers are women, children and
youth from surrounding villages who have been displaced
from their land.
population coming from Scheduled Tribes; are reported to
have been displaced by Central Coalfields Limited (CCL)
for this project, and apart from monetary compensation,
they have not received any other benefits. Although a school
has been set up, this is not functional, and medical facilities
are mainly provided to employees of the company and not to
the local community.
displaced for the Neyveli Lignite Corporation project. This
has had a serious impact on the livelihoods of a number
of families. People have lost agricultural land in the area
and are now struggling to find work. Those who had land
argue that the compensation they received is not enough.
When they were displaced 20 years ago, they received only
Rs.3,500 per acre of land. However, the impacts have hit
the Scheduled Caste population worst in the area — they
38.
Vedanta response to Survival International media statement, 20 August 2008, published in the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre website.
39. Samatha, People’s Struggle Against Utkal Alumina Plant in Kasipur, 2002.
40. Se UNICEF, Displaced Children, http://www.unicef.org/emerg/index_displacedchildren.html, uploaded: 10 February 2010.
41. Theodore E. Downing, Avoiding New Poverty: Mining-Induced Displacement and Resettlement, April 2002, pp. 14.
42. The Guardian, Gethin Chamberlain, Vedanta versus the villagers: the fight for the sacred mountain, 12 October 2009.
43.
44.
45.
Ibid.
Interviews carried out in mining-affected communities in Urimari coal mining area, Jharkhand, September 2009.
Ibid.