Skip to main content

Seven child deaths in two months in India's illegal mica mines which "sparkle" cosmetics, car paint: Report

Mica used to create shimmer in cosmetics
An explosive investigation into India’s illegal mica mines in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, which employ children as young as five, has revealed that that there have seven child deaths in the past two months, but these deaths have suffered a massive “cover-up”.
Carried out by Nita Bhalla, Rina Chandran and Anuradha Nagaraj for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and and titled “Blood Mica: Deaths of child workers in India's mica ‘ghost’ mines covered up to keep industry alive”, the investigative report says, that the spark of this mica finds its way into creating “sparkle in cosmetics and car paint.”
The report quotes a June 2016 documentation by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi's child protection group Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), which notes 20 mica-related deaths. “BBA discovered four children were killed in July”, the report states.
It adds, “Dutch campaign group SOMO estimates up to 20,000 children are involved in mica mining in Jharkhand and Bihar.”
The report says, “BBA workers, who have been trying to stop child labour in Jharkhand's mica mines for almost a decade, said Madan's death and the six others in the past two months were just the tip of the iceberg, estimating fewer than 10 percent of mica mine deaths are reported to the police.”
It quotes Raj Bhushan, BBA’s Jharkhand Project Coordinator as saying that there are “no official figures on child deaths in the mines as it is all illegal”, though adding, in the villages where the BBA works one hears about “10 fatalities on average in a month… In June, we documented over 20 deaths, including two of boys aged around 15 years old."
“Interviews with workers and local communities discovered children were not only risking their health by working in abandoned ‘ghost’ mines off official radars, but they were dying in the unregulated, crumbling mines”, the report says.
Giving details, the report says, Vasdev Rai Pratap's 16-year-old son Madan from village of Chandwara in Bihar in eastern India “was killed in a mica mine along with two other adult workers in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand on June 23.
It quotes Pratap as saying, "I didn't know how dangerous the work in the mines is. Had I known, I would never have let him go", adding, "It took almost a day to dig out his body after the mine collapsed. They cremated him without telling me. I didn't even see my boy before they set him alight."
The report complains, “Pratap, like other victims' families and mine operators, has not reported the death, choosing to accept a payment for his loss rather than risk ending the illegal mining on protected forest land that brings income to some of India's poorest areas.”
The farmer, according to the report, was promised a Rs 1 lakh by the operator of the mine, but which he has “yet to receive it”, adding, “The mine where Madan was working is illegal, and no one was available to comment on the teenager's death.”
Pointing out that the law in India – which is one of the largest producers of the “silver-coloured, crystalline mineral” – forbids children below the age of 18 working in mines and other hazardous industries, the report regrets, “Many families living in extreme poverty rely on children to boost household income.”
Interestingly, the report quotes a spokesman for India's Ministry of Mines as saying that safety in mica mines was “a matter for state governments”. Spokesman YS Kataria says, “The central government has no machinery to inspect or control the mines.”

Comments

TRENDING

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.