Children - Terre des Hommes

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significant problem. A study carried out in Jodhpur and
labourers interviewed were dependent on ghutka, tobacco
and alcohol.
Tikripada village in Keonjhar district, Orissa, consists of a
population of 1,200, mostly from Scheduled Tribes. Since
all the families in the village lost their agricultural land for
mining, and they are now forced to work as daily wage labour
for mining contractors, social problems have increased in
the village. With the influx of external migrant populations,
such as truck drivers, youth in the village have now become
vulnerable to addictions to alcohol and gutka, and crimes
such as theft have increased. A large increase in the number
of liquor stores in the area since the introduction of mining
has meant that men, women and young children have all
become dependent on alcohol, which they claim is due to
heavy work load in the mines.
Mining areas often coincide with the parts of the country
most affected by child trafficking. One example is the
case of Sundergarh district in Orissa, which has a serious
problem in terms of trafficking, particularly of young girls.
It was estimated by a survey conducted by the Rourkela
Social Service Society that every day there is trafficking
of at least 20 girls to cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. At
district according to their survey. The main reasons for this
high incidence of trafficking are stark poverty, indebtedness
created by mining and other industries, and the nonimplementation
of developmental schemes in the areas. As
industrialisation, in particular mining, has spread rapidly in
the district, adivasis, who form a majority of the population
have become vulnerable to migration and trafficking. The
district also has an alarming rate of unwed mothers and
prostitution.
In addition to these social problems and abuses, child
mineworkers face violations in terms of their rights to
leisure and recreation. The United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child clearly recognises the right of
every child to rest and leisure, and to engage in play and
recreational activities. However, the concept of free
time and recreation is almost absent from the daily lives of
children working in mining and quarrying.
Conclusion
The findings in this study paint a frightening picture of
children’s rights in mining areas across the country. Because
there is so little information available mining children live
where they have no way of proving the number of stones
they break, the number of debts they repay, the number of
nights they starve, the numbers that have lost their parents
or watch them dying each day with tuberculosis or silicosis,
the numbers who are victims of the rape of their bodies and
the pain of their souls.
Malnourished, denied access to education, and living and
working in dangerous conditions, India’s “mining children”
are leading horrendous lives. Previously unexplored, and
therefore inevitably neglected, the links between children
and mining have not yet been taken seriously by either
policy-makers or activists. It is hoped that this report will
provide the basis for further action and advocacy work
on these issues, to ensure that children’s rights no longer
be violated by the mining sector. The report also provides
evidence, once again, that profits from mining do not simply
‘trickle down’ and benefit the local community. Instead,
Key Findings
The significant findings from this national study point
to eight most critical areas of concern with respect to
upholding the rights of India’s children vis-à-vis mining:
These are
1. Increased morbidity and illness
2. Increased food insecurity and malnutrition
3. Increased vulnerability to exploitation and abuse.
4. Violation of Right to Education
5. Increase in child labour
6. Further marginalisation adivasi and dalit children
7. Migrant children are the nowhere children.
8. Mining children fall through the gaps and there is
urgent need to amend laws, policies and programmes
to address their specific rights and entitlement.
167. Gravis, Tales of Woe: A Report on Child Labour in the Mines of Jodhpur and Makrana, March 2004, p. 20.
168. Interviews carried out in Tikripada village, Keonjhar, Orissa, February 2010.
169. United Nations, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 31.
170. ILO, Eliminating Child Labour in Mining and Quarrying, 12 June 2005, p. 17.