Children - Terre des Hommes
Children - Terre des Hommes
Children - Terre des Hommes
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
iii<br />
Acknowledgements<br />
This report, called, India’s Childhood in the ‘Pits’: The Impacts of Mining on <strong>Children</strong> in India, had its beginnings in the<br />
fact-finding exercise that the organisations involved in this research had undertaken in April 2005. Had it not been for the<br />
children we met then, we would never have known how deeply affected they are by mining. We thank the children of Bellary<br />
for opening our eyes to the problems of mining affected children.<br />
The core focus of this report is the primary data and information gathered from the mine sites and communities affected by<br />
mining. The organisations that directly helped us are Santulan (Maharashtra), Sakhi (Karnataka), Mine Labour Protection<br />
Campaign (Rajasthan), Pathar Khadaan Majdoor Sangh (Madhya Pra<strong>des</strong>h), Ankuran (Orissa), Gangpur Adivasi Forum<br />
for Socio-Cultural Awakening (Orissa), Swaraj Foundation ( Jharkhand), Jan Chetna (Chhattisgarh) and Grameena Vikasa<br />
Saradhi & MASS (Andhra Pra<strong>des</strong>h). Additionally, organisations including READS (Karnataka), SEEDS (Karnataka),<br />
Don Bosco (Karnataka) and Lutheran World Service (Orissa) provided extra support with data collection. Individually,<br />
we received help for organising our field visits or in accompanying us to the field from friends and activists like Mr. Kumar<br />
(Kolar), Mr. Dayanidhi Marandi, Mr. Santosh Kumar Das, Mr. Niladri Mishra, Mr. Samit Carr, Mr.Vijay Kumar, Mr.<br />
Kishore Kujur and Mr. Naveen Naik. We thank all the member organisations of mm&P alliance that helped us with<br />
undertaking field research in the eight states that were covered for the case studies.<br />
This report would not have been possible without the financial support of <strong>Terre</strong> <strong>des</strong> <strong>Hommes</strong> (tdh) Germany, AEI &<br />
ASTM Luxembourg. We thank them for giving priority to this issue <strong>des</strong>pite several constraints. We particularly appreciate<br />
the support from Ravi and George Chira of tdh, Germany during the process of the study and for their inputs in review and<br />
finalisation of the report.<br />
This report is dedicated to all the children of India — dalit, adivasi and marginalised children driven out of their lands, child<br />
mine workers working in the most hazardous conditions, all children living around mine sites braving bulldozers and coping<br />
with the inhuman conditions they are pitted against in order for India to compete as a global contender for economic and<br />
political power.<br />
Most of all, we wish to thank the research team and the administrative teams of Samata and HAQ for their highly motivated<br />
work all through the study.<br />
We thank Rukmini Sekhar for her yeo-woman support in copyediting the national report in such a short time. Nishant<br />
Singh and Sukvinder Singh for not saying NO even as it seemed impossible to <strong>des</strong>ign and print the report in the time we<br />
gave them.<br />
We hope this report will help put the “mining child” on the national agenda and ensure that some attention is paid to<br />
them.<br />
Bhanumathi Kalluri<br />
Dhaatri-Samata<br />
Enakshi Ganguly Thukral<br />
HAQ:Centre for Child Rights