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.
37<br />
Table 1.4: Total number of children working in mining and<br />
quarrying in India (main and marginal workers)<br />
Total main and<br />
marginal worker<br />
State 5-14 5-19<br />
year year<br />
Andaman and Nicobar Islands 11 107<br />
Andhra Pra<strong>des</strong>h 11,660 37,586<br />
Arunachal Pra<strong>des</strong>h 3 30<br />
Assam 591 3,101<br />
Bihar 689 2,906<br />
Chandigarh 2 17<br />
Chhattishgarh 426 2,897<br />
Dadra and Nagar Haveli 13 97<br />
Daman and Diu 2 18<br />
Delhi 939 3,208<br />
Goa 196 1,198<br />
Gujarat 2,120 12,323<br />
Haryana 886 4,473<br />
Himachal Pra<strong>des</strong>h 20 453<br />
Jammu and Kashmir 58 268<br />
Jharkhand 2,862 13,346<br />
Karnataka 4,669 18,276<br />
Kerala 239 3,487<br />
Lakshadweep 0 0<br />
Madhya Pra<strong>des</strong>h 2,747 12,655<br />
Maharashtra 2,095 11,758<br />
Manipur 5 36<br />
Meghalaya 154 881<br />
Mizoram 64 216<br />
Nagaland 3 54<br />
Orissa 2,257 11,203<br />
Puducherry 11 57<br />
Punjab 61 537<br />
Rajasthan 4,296 29,498<br />
Sikkim 26 148<br />
Tamil Nadu 2,708 14,879<br />
Tripura 76 198<br />
Uttarakhand 2,045 4,870<br />
Uttar Pra<strong>des</strong>h 1,094 6,309<br />
West Bengal 2,107 9,630<br />
India 45,135 206,720<br />
Source: Census, 2001<br />
due to reduced demand for iron and manganese since the<br />
peak period of 2000-2005. Child labour is not being reduced<br />
because of positive efforts to address the problem by the state<br />
or the mining companies; instead it is because of the overall<br />
status of mining due to recession. Many of these children<br />
have been forced to turn to other forms of work to generate<br />
an income, as opposed to being able to access education,<br />
and child labour is bound to increase again once the market<br />
improves and demand for the minerals increases.<br />
It is difficult to measure the number of children involved<br />
in mining, because of the remoteness, informal character of<br />
the sector and mobility factors. However, the ILO estimates<br />
that more than one million children are involved in mining<br />
across the world. The actual figure, though, may be much<br />
higher than this, particularly given that the ILO states that<br />
250,000 children work in mines in Niger alone. Child labour<br />
in the mining sector is prevalent in numerous countries<br />
across Africa, Asia and Latin America, where children can<br />
be found working mostly in small-scale underground and<br />
opencast mines and quarries. They work in the extraction<br />
and processing of various types of ore and minerals, including<br />
goal, silver, iron, tin, emeralds, coal, chrome, marble and<br />
stone. The ILO <strong>des</strong>cribes how “Today’s child miners do not<br />
work directly for big mining companies. They may work for<br />
a small local mining or quarrying concern or with their own<br />
families on small concessions near bigger mines.” 138<br />
It is impossible to give an accurate figure for the number<br />
of children working in mining and quarrying in India.<br />
<br />
<br />
which means that the mining sector employs nearly<br />
7 per cent of working children in India. Child labour<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
the Census — so there are likely to be very large numbers<br />
of children 15–18 years working in the mines. Field visits<br />
to mining areas confirmed this to be the case — this age<br />
group of children is very visible in the mines and quarries<br />
across the country as they are better able than younger to<br />
children to carry out physically demanding work.<br />
However, the figures provided by the Census grossly<br />
underestimate the scale of the problem. Organisations<br />
working on mining in Rajasthan estimate that around<br />
137. ILO, Digging for Survival: The Child Miners, 2005.<br />
138. Ibid.