Children - Terre des Hommes

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Efforts to address child labour in
mining
Although some efforts have been made by NGOs and the
ILO to address the problem of child labour in the mining
sector across the world, this continues to be a neglected area
— perhaps due to the lack of quantitative data on the scale
of the problem. The ILO’s International Programme on the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has adopted mining and
quarrying as one of its global areas of focus, due to the dangerous
nature of the work. Pilot projects undertaken by ILO-IPEC in
Mongolia, Tanzania, Niger and the Andean countries of South
America have shown that the best way to assist child miners
is to work with the children’s own communities. The IPEC
programme explains how mining and quarrying communities
have been helped to organise co-operatives and to improve
their productivity by acquiring machinery, thus eliminating
or reducing the need for child labour. However, the ILO
recognises that while projects on the ground can assist child
miners in a practical way, only worldwide awareness of the
problem can mobilise the international effort that is needed to
end the practice for good. 158
In India, the ILO–IPEC programme initiated a project in
Andhra Pradesh to eliminate child labour in the state, and a
component of this was focused on reducing the number of
children working in slate mines and factories in the state.
The National Child Labour Programme (NCLP) is the
flagship programme of the government to eliminate child
labour in hazardous situations. In the case of mining children
there are two problems related to this: 1) Since not all mining
occupations are listed as hazardous, all child labour in mines
is not covered by this programme. 2) where they exist, they
do not tend to function effectively. As is now the practice,
most government programmes are run by NGOs. In this case
they are run by NGOs with very small funds and so they are
run badly and with little motivation. Since there is little or no
proactive motivation from government labour departments
to identify areas that have child labour, it all depends on the
motivation of the local NGO, if there is any.
Increased vulnerability to
violence and abuse
The majority of mining areas are not safe environments
for a child to grow up in. There are many social problems
associated with mining operations. Numerous reports
across the world have documented how mining activity
is often accompanied by the widespread availability and
consumption of alcohol, an increase in gambling and the
introduction or increase in prostitution. Violence, alcoholinduced
and domestic, may increase. Very difficult
working and living conditions, and the uncertainties of life,
can encourage excessive alcohol consumption habits amongst
quarry workers. Alcoholism is prevalent, particularly in male
mineworkers, and in some cases leads to domestic violence
and the ill-treatment of children. Amongst the population
displaced for the Urimari coal mining project in Jharkhand,
alcoholism has risen. One woman explained that alcoholism
has increased since the mining started and that 80 per cent
of the family income is now spent on alcohol.
Mining sites are rough places to live and work. Some
children become engaged in prostitution and they are
also confronted by problems related to alcohol and drug
abuse, and violence. The ILO highlights how the
mining environment often becomes a degrading social
environment, with increasing levels of prostitution and
criminality, as well as an erosion of family and social
structures. Alcoholism amongst male workers has been
identified as a major issue in Rajasthan. In Budhpura, Bundi
district, illicit alcohol is supplied to labourers at a subsidised
rate, which promotes alcoholism.
In Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, women mineworkers
explained that alcoholism is rampant among men and
some women. Men, women and children are all addicted to
chewing gutka (a chewable form of tobacco). The reasons
they give for this is to ease the physical tiredness and
pain experienced after a hard day’s work. Consumption
of alcohol, tobacco and drugs by child mineworkers is a
157. ILO, Digging for Survival: The Child Miners, 2005.
158. Ibid.
159. ILO, http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/newdelhi/ipec/responses/india/p2.htm, uploaded: 24 August 2009.
160. Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development Project, Breaking new ground: mining, minerals and sustainable development, 2002.
161. K. Lahiri-Dutt, Digging to Survive: Women’s Livelihoods in South Asia’s Small Mines and Quarries, South Asian Survey 15:2, 2008, p. 217 – 244.
162. Interviews carried out in mining-affected communities in Urimari coal mining area, Jharkhand, September 2009.
163. ILO, Eliminating Child Labour in Mining and Quarrying, 12 June 2005, p. 11.
164. Ibid, p. 16.
165. P. Madhavan and Dr Sanjay Raj, Budhpura ‘Ground Zero’ Sandstone quarrying in India, December 2005.
166. Interviews carried out with women mineworkers, Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, October 2009.