Children - Terre des Hommes

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almost every child is absent for atleast 2 days in a week. He
said that most of them work in the mines with their parents
and earn Rs.50 per day. As most of the children enrolled here
are migrant labour from Cuddapah and Kurnool districts
of Andhra Pradesh, the children find it difficult to study in
Kannada (local language) medium, which is another cause for
them dropping out. The poor infrastructure with children of
different classes having to sit together and lack of teachers are
other reasons for children not wanting to attend school.
Children of mine workers in Hospet slum–many children work in garages, tea
stalls, mine sites, as truck cleaners coolies,loaders, domestic labour
(Photo January 2010)
The Status of Schools and Education
in the Mining Area
The Bellary district statistics show that a total of 9,233 children
were out of school in the year 2006, 5,198 children were out
of school in the year 2007 and 4,581 children were out of
school in the year 2008. 28 However, these district figures are
grossly underestimated as, from a very small random survey,
we found that in Hospet alone, there were 367 children not
going to school.
The primary school in Valmikinagar, Kariganuru has 105
children enrolled. There are only three teachers for classes I
to V and four classrooms of which one is damaged due to
mine blasting activities happening nearby. According to the
headmaster only 80–85 children attend school regularly but
Classroom of Valmikinagar primary school damaged due to mine blasting
operations near Kariganuru, Hospet, Karnataka (Photo January 2010)
Loading activities take place just behind the school and
children disappear during school hours or during lunch break
for loading work as they can earn Rs.15 each. The local school
teacher said that even children of classes II and III go for
mining work and are absent from school regularly. Apart from
mining activities, the children of this school are also working in
the garages and hotels on the highway. Moreover, continuous
blasting just near the school creates noise pollution disturbing
the classes and leaves a layer of red dust on the children, their
food and books. The blasting operations and the proximity
to the highway, makes the school a dangerous location for
children. The school also does not have a boundary wall.
The school authorities say that they have put a requisition
to the education department for shifting the school to a safer
location, but there is no action taken so far.
In one slum in Hospet, 15 out of the 25 children interviewed
were from SC families and of these, nine children had never
attended school, the main reason being mining, ill-health and
poverty. In Sultanpura village, there are three power projects
owned by the Jindals and KMMI. One of the plants has been
set up just 200m from the primary school. There are 103
children in the age group of 6–14 but only 61 children attend
the primary school. Of these there are only 13 children from
SC community, the reason for this being that dalit children
are working as child labour in the mines, as explained by the
local organisation Rural Education Action Development
Society (READS). The headmaster said that the children in
the school are always complaining of throat infections due to
the high levels of dust from the mines. The school has only
two permanent teachers but at the time of the visit only the
headmaster was present and the other two teachers were on
leave. The infrastructure too was poor and the school had no
drinking water, toilet or proper classrooms (two classes were
taken together by one teacher). The safety of the children did
not seem to be a concern for the authorities inspite of the
dilapidated condition of the building.
28 Bellary District Statistics, 2006 Sarva Siksha Abhiyan