Children - Terre des Hommes

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number of children working in the mines and in other nonmining
activities. Many of the children are from migrant
families. Some of the migrant families have settled down in
the slums in Hospet while many migrate only seasonally for
mine labour. Children are engaged in breaking of stones,
digging, dumping and also in cleaning of trucks. Many,
as they live on the site and accompany their parents, start
working even at the age of five and six and are adept at their
work by the age of 10. Boys from the age of 12 start taking
on the more difficult work of breaking the larger boulders
and stones while the girls are engaged in breaking these
into small stones, powdering them into iron ore filings and
in loading activities. The average earning of the children
working in mining activities ranges between Rs.80 and
Rs.100 per day.
Sandur is known for almost every inch of land being taken on
lease by small contractors for iron ore mining. The local
people from the mine site visited by us said that, in an
area of 20–30 acres there were about 100 illegal mines.
In each mine site 7–8 workers were found, mainly women
and girls. According to the owner of a mine interviewed,
thousands of small contractors sell their iron ore to
Obulapuram mining company, which is just 5 km away, at
a rate of Rs.4,000 per truck. We found small girls even of
the age of 5 years working in these mine sites and when
questioned, the mine owner had a straight reply, that as
they supply ore to Obulapuram, they do not have to deal
with the law or police as these are ‘taken care’ of by the
company.
Young girls are engaged in sorting and breaking of iron ore, working 8 hours
a day, at Kariganuru, Hospet (Photo December 2009)
Migrant women and their small children working at an illegal mining site in
Sandur (Photo January 2010)
In Sankalapuram young girls between the age of eight and
18 who were interviewed near the mines, said that there
are about 100 crushers as far as they understand and there
are 20 to 25 girls working in each site. Their work time is
between 5.00 am and 12.00 pm and they earn Rs.100 or
Rs.110 per day because of which parents force the girls to
work in the mines.
Kariganuru is a village close to the national highway where
there is rampant illegal mining. The people interviewed stated
that there are more than 1,500 families living here who are
engaged as mine labour. At the time of our visit, there were
several girls between the ages of 10 and 15 years, working in
the mine sites. The girls sort the stones and separate them
while the older women break the stones. The villagers said
that there are atleast 500 girls working in the mines and every
family has, on an average, two boys involved in mining related
work from this village.
The major escape route for mine owners and contractors
where child labour is concerned is the firm (desperate)
cooperation of the families themselves as they cannot survive
without the wages of the children. Many of the children we
saw in the slums had single parents, widowed mothers or bedridden
parents because of which they had no choice but to
leave school and work either in the mines or elsewhere. Every
contractor or middle man interviewed spoke as if they took
pity on the families and allowed the children to work as a
gesture of charity.
The economic meltdown in the iron ore industry globally
has affected Bellary as the number of children working in the
mines seems to have reduced since our fact-finding study in
2005. However, during the field visits we found that business
was picking up again with trucks moving around and women
and children being called for work by the contractors, even
discreetly at night, as work goes on illegally.