Children - Terre des Hommes

41
children are working in mines in Karnataka as reported in
He further reiterated that the use of child labour working
in mines is prohibited under the Child Labour (Prohibition
identified as a hazardous occupation and any employer
penal action which includes imprisonment.
He said that instructions to enforce strictly the Child
Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act in the entire
country for all hazardous occupations including working
in mines for children has been conveyed to all the state
governments including the Government of Karnataka and
that the government is very serious in effective enforcement
of the Act and in the implementation of the National Child
Labour Projects in the country. “Mining is a very widespread
activity in the country and it takes place both in the organised
sector and in the unorganised sector. There is no evidence
to indicate that the school drop out rates amongst children
working in mines is higher than the general drop out rates in
the other areas in the country” he added. 153
The National Child Labour Project (NCLP) is the oldest
scheme of the government to address child labour and was
occupations in the child labour endemic districts. The
scheme involves establishing Special Schools for rescued
child labourers and provides children with a stipend of
Ajit (name changed) hails from Dom Koral village of Tikiri.
He is 17 years old. As his father died five years ago, he
was forced to take on the entire burden of the family
and become the sole breadwinner. He works as a manual
labourer under different contractors in mining activities
and earns around Rs.60 a day. He stated that the mining
work is erratic due to the community protests and strikes,
and hence his earnings are irregular. “I do odd jobs at the
mine site as there is construction work going on. Work
is very tough and therefore, I have gradually become
addicted to liquor and gutka - I can’t help it”.
Rs.100 a month, as well as nutrition, vocational training and
regular health check ups. The coverage of the NCLP scheme
increased to 250 districts during the Tenth Plan, and now
includes a number of areas where there is widespread mining,
such as districts in Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Rajasthan. The
NCLP scheme has been heavily criticised for its failure to
reach the number of children necessary. Of the 150 districts
sanctioned under the Tenth Plan, projects have still only
scheme has now been officially increased to a total of 250
districts, this still only covers half the country. Whilst we
know that there are huge numbers of children across the
country still engaged in hazardous forms of labour, as of
through the NCLP scheme. 155
It was a shocking discovery during the field visits that there
are hardly any NCLP schools operating in the areas where
mining affected children live. In most places, it is the local
NGOs who are providing these facilities either in the case
of Pashan Shalas in Pune district of Maharashtra or in the
form of Tent schools run in Bellary and Sandur districts in
Karnataka.
In addition to the national laws on child labour in the
mining sector, there are several international conventions
which relate to this form of labour. The guiding international
framework for child rights is the Convention on the Rights
of the Convention states:
“States Parties recognise the right of the child to
be protected from economic exploitation and from
performing any work that is likely to be hazardous
or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be
harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental,
spiritual, moral or social development.”
In spite of this agreement, children continue to be employed
in hazardous work in mines and quarries across the country.
India has also ratified the ILO Convention C123 Minimum
mines.
153. Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 208. Answered on 8.08.2005
154. HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, Still Out of Focus: Status of India’s Children, 2008.
155. Information accessed on Indiastat.com; Compiled from the statistics released by Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3759, dated on 09.05.2007. and Lok
Sabha Unstarred Question No. 994, dated on 20.08.2007 and Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2415, dated on 03.12.2007.
156. Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 32.