Mining children are nobody's baby in Govt of India, ministry and laws are quiet on child rights

Raising a major policy issue, a top advocacy group, Mines, Minerals and People (MM&P) has regretted that the plight of the "mining children" is not the responsibility of the Ministry of Mines, Government of India, which looks after all the mines in India, and the result is a strange "mess": the lives of children as a result of mining has to be addressed by other departments like child welfare, education, tribal welfare, labour, environment and others.
Insisting on the need to converge between various departments and agencies for taking care of the mining children, MM&P in a memorandum submitted to government of India ministers and MPs cutting across party lines, says, the issue becomes particularly precarious as "laws and policies related to mining do not address specific rights and entitlements of mining children."
Pointing towards gravity of the problem, MM&P says, "India currently produces 89 minerals out of which four are fuel minerals, 11 metallic, 52 non-metallic and 22 minor minerals. Mining for fuel, metallic and non-metallic industrial minerals is currently undertaken in almost half of India’s districts."
Currently one of the main industries that generate high revenues, the problem of mining children, says MM&P, has acquired added dimension, because the tribal and other marginalized communities have had to fight for their survival in mining areas, such as in Niyamgiri hills, where they were pitted against Vedanta and Posco in Odisha; Steel Authority of India (SAIL) in Salem, Tamil Nadu; iron ore mining in Goa; and coal mining in Chhattisgarh.
"It is in and around these mining areas that we find children the most vulnerable to the stark realities of extractive economy. These children are affected by mining, both indirectly and directly. It is these children who need our concern and attention and should be referred to as the mining children", MM&P says.
It says, "Due to environmental pollution, children are most at risk to various health hazards due to silicosis, TB, structural birth defects, etc. Jodhpur and Makhna (Rajasthan), Rewa and Panna (Madhya Pradesh). Panna is also a classic example where both child mortality rate and maternal mortality rate are very high."
According to MM&P, "While almost 50% of children across states are malnourished, malnourishment is widespread and acute in mining areas. Malnutrition is a problem in many places like Rewa and Udaipur (Rajasthan). In Panna, malnutrition among children is the highest out of all the mining areas."
"Displaced homeless or living in inadequate housing conditions, forced to drop out of schools, children become easy target for abuse, exploitation and being recruited for illegal activities by mafia and even trafficking", the memorandum, signed by MM&P's Rebbapragada Ravi (chairperson) and Ashok Shrimali, secretary general, says, adding, "Cases of sexual abuse and trafficking among children are a harsh reality in all the mining areas."
Then, it says, "Mining children are unable to access schools or are forced to drop out of schools because of circumstances arising from mining activity. Children’s education getting hampered and drop out problems are major concerns in many places like Jodhpur, Makhna, Udaipur, Rewa and Panna."
Also, MM&P says, "Mining regions have large numbers of children working in the most hazardous activities. Since child labour is illegal these activities are mostly done clandestinely taking advantage of the poor condition of the community. Child Labour is prevalent in many places like Panna, Udaipur (Rajasthan) and Tamil Nadu."
Pointing out that due to "large scale mining projects children are fast losing their constitutional rights under the 5th schedule, due to displacement, land alienation and migration by mining projects", MM&P says, "The mining sector is largely dependent on migrant populations (who most often do not have any proof of identity) where children have no security of life and where children are also found to be working in the mines or other labor as a result of mining."

Comments

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."

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.

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.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

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."

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

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.

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The most striking comment came from BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who stated : "When a train derailed in the 1950s, Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned. On the same morality, I demand PM Modi, HM Amit Shah, and Civil Aviation Minister Naidu resign so that a free and fair inquiry can be held. All that Modi and his associates have been doing so far is gallivanting, which must stop." Amidst widespread mourning, some fringe elements sought to communalize the tragedy. One post ...

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.

Search This Blog