Children - Terre des Hommes

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Panna district: Key facts
Total population: 856,558 (Census 2001)
Population (0–14 years): 349,322 (Census 2001)
Literacy rate:
Total 61.36 per cent
Male 73.33 per cent
Female 47.97 per cent (Census 2001)
Percentage of out-of-school children (6–14 years): 1.5 per cent (ASER 2008)
Percentage of children enrolled in AWC or pre-school (3–4 years): 89.7 per cent (ASER 2008)
Number of child labour (5–14 years): 13,303 (Census 2001)
Under five mortality rate (ranking):
587 out of 593 districts surveyed
(Jansankhya Sthirata Kosh)
artisanal and small-scale mining. According to the Census,
there were 177,249 people working in mining and quarrying
(main and marginal workers) in Madhya Pradesh in 2001.
Of these, 2,747 children aged between 5 and 14 years were
working in mining in the state in 2001, and 12,655 in the age
group 5 and 19 years. 147
An estimated 31.7 per cent of the country’s diamond reserves
are located in Panna district, Madhya Pradesh. 148 The
diamond belt covers around a 1,000 km area. The NMDC, a
government-owned company, is the only organised producer
of diamonds in the country, from its Majhgawan mine, 20
km from Panna town. Majhgawan is the only mechanised
diamond mine in Asia and was discovered in 1827. In January
2001, the mine and plant was upgraded for 84,000 carats
production per year, which was a huge increase from 15,000
carats in 1984. Every year, the land is leased to prospective
miners by the government agency. The diamonds are then
collected by the district magistrate of Panna, and auctioned
four times a year. However, a large quantity of diamonds are
mined illegally and smuggled out of the state to polishing
units in Surat in Gujarat and Mumbai in Maharashtra. There
are over 3,000 illegal mines in the district and an estimated 90
per cent of diamonds mined in the area are sold illegally. 149
Diamond mining is the only source of livelihood for many
people living in the district. However, as with most artisanal
diamond mining areas across the world, the labourers get a
tiny fraction of the value of the stones they find.
Diamonds Are Not a Girl’s Best
Friend: ‘For Her, Who Digs, Cuts
and Polishes, Diamonds Are
Forever a Curse’
“My name is Sudeep. I am working with my father
here in the stone quarries since 3–4 years. Now I
am 18 years old. I come from Panna village. There
is no fixed rate of payment for the work I do. For
digging out one plate of stone we get Rs.70–120
per day. In a day we can take out 5–6 plates of the
stone, as a group. I can say that I earn Rs.100–
120 in one day. But I can only work for 12–15
days in a month as the work is very strenuous. I
have never been to school”.
Source: : Interview carried out in Purna Panna stone and diamond
quarries, Panna, August 2009
This is the story of the glittering refractions of a piece of
carbon that fragment the childhood of the poor dalit and
adivasi children of Panna. Panna district was originally a
Gond settlement until the thirteenth century and became
geographically of strategic value after the importance gained
to the minerals found here. Panna is famous for its diamonds
which are located in a belt extending for 80 km across the
district. It also has many stone quarries that stretch across
the entire district and yet, Panna is one of the poorest
districts in the state, graded as ‘C’ category.
146. All figures accessed on indiastat.com; provided by Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.
147. Census of India, 2001.
148. Centre for Science and Environment, Rich Lands, Poor People, ‘State of India’s Environment: 6’, 2008, pp. 216.
149. Ibid.