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| Campaign Against Child Labour, K - Report |
5th May 2005
Fact Finding Report
Executive Summary:
mines, minerals & PEOPLE, a national alliance of mining struggle groups in India came to know of the exploitation of child labour in the Iron-ore and Granite mines of Hospet- Bellary region of Karnataka and of their inhuman conditions of life. As this is a serious violation of children’s life and safety and requires urgent intervention, a Fact-finding visit was organised jointly by mm&P, MV Foundation, HAQ, CACL Karnataka and other social rights activists.
We visited several mine sites around Hospet, Sandur and Illakkal on the 15th and 16th of April 2005 and what we witnessed was a truly unjustifiable situation of mine labour exploitation, a large number being children starting from the age of five working in the most hazardous conditions and leading a ‘pits’ of existence between survival and death.
Although it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of children working, we can roughly say from what we saw, that there are atleast a few lakh children illegally forced into mining activities. They are employed by the mine owners and contractors for digging, breaking stones, sieving, loading, dumping, transporting and processing activities of iron ore mining with no safety equipment, no prescribed working hours or wages, susceptible to accidents, injuries and chronic mining induced health problems and severe air, dust and water pollution. Children are also employed in the granite mines for collecting kerosene from mine tailings and in the washeries, handling toxic wastes with their bare hands.
What we saw was blatant violation of all legal and social norms in order to employ children as very cheap labour and the lack of any State responsibility towards these children where mine owners, contractors, traders and all along the mining chain arrogantly escaping from any accountability. We could not understand how such open and dangerous exploitation of child labourers in alarming proportions has not been noticed or addressed by the authorities concerned.
We wish to state that this could only be but a glimpse into the alarming situation of child labourers and working conditions not just in Bellary or Karnataka but in several other mine sites in the country, given the nature of free trade that is taking over our mining industry. The shift to privatisation and open market economy after our new economic policies has led to pushing women and children into the informal labour force, especially in sectors like mining where deregulation of laws for attracting foreign direct investment and private investments have led to mechanisation and retrenchment of workers and have diluted the legal protections towards labourers and marginalized sections. This calls for urgent investigation of all the mines in the country.
The following are our main findings in Hospet-Bellary mine sites:
· Child labour are working in very large and alarming numbers in the iron-ore and granite mines of Hospet-Bellary region of Karnataka state in direct violation of the Constitutional rights of children
· Most of the children are migrant labourers
· Children are working in highly hazardous and painful conditions in the mines and related ‘ancillary’ activities and the situation calls for urgent action
· Children are handling high levels of toxic waste and exposed to mine dust which is above permissible levels and therefore susceptible to serious and chronic health problems
· All the mines we visited had Child labourers where mine owners are blatantly violating laws related to employing children
· The working and living conditions of child workers are highly exploitative, inhuman and do not have even the very basic amenities either for work safety or for minimum human living needs.
· There is a high drop out rate of children from schools in this belt as they have been sucked into the vicious mine labour market.
· There is high indebtedness and serious health problems of mine labourers because of which children are pushed into the mine labour force from a very early age.
· The entire chain of mining operators including central and state governments, all the private, public and illegal mine owners in the district, the traders, buyers, national and multinational companies connected to iron ore mining and processing, contractors and others involved in the mine extraction, processing and marketing are equally responsible for the existence of child labour
· Children are undergoing serious physical, social, sexual, psychological and environmental exploitation and trauma by the entire chain.
· The mining industry is violating all national, international standards and laws and human rights of children
· The State and the mining industry are blatantly escaping any accountability towards the issue of child labour.
· We did not get any information whether there were any public hearings being conducted as per the EPA requirements even though many of the leases were more than 5 hectares.
Our Demands:
· Government must admit that child labour exists on a large scale in the mines.
· An enquiry must be commissioned immediately by the Government of India and Karnataka on the magnitude of the exploitation of children in the mine and violation of children's rights in the area.
· Legal action by the Department of Labour under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, and The Bonded Labour System Abolition Act, 1976 must be immediately taken against the employers.
· Mining leases should be cancelled to those who have employed child labour.
· Government must issue a moratorium on new leases as mining should not be continued with such gross human rights violations of adults, both men and women and children.
· Government should review the State of Karnataka's Environment Report 2003 prepared by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and State Environment Department, where it is clearly indicated that mining should not be expanded in Bellary-Hospet belt in the current manner.
· Government must immediately take action towards release and rehabilitation of all child labour in the area.
· Local bodies, particularly the Gram Panchayats or Gram Sabhas where applicable, must be given the power, mandate and responsibility for monitoring the child labour situation in their respective panchayats and submit periodic reports of the status to the district authorities.
· Public hearings should be conducted for all proposed projects involving major minerals above 5 hectares as per Circular dated 12.02.2004 of EIA Notification 1994, for obtaining environmental clearance of Major Minerals and iron ore is a major mineral. The Local bodies, panchayats and public should have prior information about the public hearing and given access to EIA and EMP documents of the same and allowed to democratically participate in the hearings.
· The Centre should immediately conduct an enquiry in all the mining areas in different states and come up with a country report on child labourers in the mines. The report must be allowed for public scrutiny.
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