Children - Terre des Hommes

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the village were cough, eye infections, fevers, allergies while
chronic respiratory illnesses, malaria, TB were also reported.
People also reported that there were many accidents near the
village due to the heavy flow of trucks on the highway.
The village Neerahalli has no public services like electricity,
drinking water, Public Distribution System (PDS), road,
water or housing for the mine workers. They are not enlisted
in the gram panchayat. There is no government school
or anganwadi nearby and the PHC is 10 km away but the
roads are in no condition for sick people, especially pregnant
women, to travel. Similar is the condition of the villagers in
Thimmalapura where, in addition to lack of basic services,
there is a problem of flourosis. Here children and adults
complain of joint pains. Four persons in this village have TB.
The daily wage is Rs. 80 which is far from sufficient to provide
for a basic diet of dal and vegetables. So the staple diet here is
just rice and jowar rotis.
The dust pollution and depletion of groundwater forced
many small farmers to sell their land to mining contractors
as agriculture was made unviable. This has badly affected
their food security and livelihood because of which children
are directly affected in their health and nutrition. Many
farmers themselves have been forced into mine labour with
their entire families. This has affected the education of
children and school drop-out is visible among local children
whose villages surround the mining activities. Even if
they do not work in the mining activities, the severe dust
pollution and contaminated water have affected the general
health of children. The doctors and chemist stores that we
interacted with in Hospet, stated that chronic respiratory
illnesses, allergies, lung diseases, diarroeah and asthma have
increased among children not only of mine workers but of
the general public.
Conclusions
Bellary district is a standing example of the indiscriminate
and illegal mining, and how the entire governance machinery
is made ineffective in dealing with the problems. It is also a
glaring example of how such large numbers of children are
working in stark daylight and yet, the helplessness of the
people, the state and the civil society are clearly evident. It is
an area that was once rich in agriculture and is today, totally
destroyed by mining, over a large area. However, the recent
political and bureaucratic pressures that are being brought
on the mining activities hold hope. Bellary provides a strong
reason for addressing the glaring loopholes in the law that
related to private and small-scale/rat-hole mining, the need to
develop guidelines for migrant labour and unorganised sector
and the pre-conditions that need to be fixed before mining
leases are granted. An urgent comprehensive assessment
of the status of children of mine workers as well as of local
communities and the status of the institutional structures for
children have to be immediately taken up. Foremost is the
need for strengthening the campaign against child labour in
this region.
(Acknowledgements: The above case studies were done
mainly in partnership with Sakhi, an organisation working
for the rights of women and children based in Hospet, Bellary.
We would like to thank Dr. Bhagyalaxmi and her team for
working with us all through the case study and in conducting
field interviews on our behalf. We also wish to thank the
organisations READS, SEEDS and Don Bosco for all their
help in compiling information).
Contaminated water having iron ore waste, the only sources of water for
bathing, washing and drinking, Sandur (Photo December 2009)