Children - Terre des Hommes

3
About the Study
This study has been conducted jointly by HAQ: Centre
for Child Rights and Samata in close partnership with the
national alliance, mines, minerals and People (mm&P)
network and Dhaatri Resource Centre for Women and
Children, and supported by Terre des Hommes Germany
(tdh), AEI & ASTM Luxembourg. The work follows on
from an earlier fact-finding mission that was carried out in
the iron ore mines of Bellary district, Karnataka. As well as
being the first study to cover these issues in a comprehensive
way, the study aims to form the basis for mobilisation
and advocacy on this issue. We hope that, along with the
mm&P network, we will be able to take forward this work
and to campaign to bring real improvements in the lives of
children affected by mining in India.
This report aims to cover the three phases of mining — premining
areas (where projects are being proposed and land
needs to be attained), current mining areas (where mining is
already taking place) and post-mining areas (where mining
operations were significant but have now ceased).
Field research was carried out in eight states to cover a
range of different mining situations, as well as a range of
minerals being mined in India today. The states covered
were: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. In
Orissa we undertook case studies in a number of different
sites as Orissa is a state most impacted by mining and has
been the focus of further mineral expansion.
Methodology
This report is compiled from a combination of information
gathered in the field and from secondary data. The sites for
fieldwork were chosen to ensure a range of minerals, both
minor and major minerals, were covered as well as a wide
geographic space. One of the most important factors was
the presence of a local organisation or an mm&P partner.
This was a priority for two reasons, to secure local support
with the research, and to ensure that local groups will
take the campaign forward and use the study as a basis for
mobilisation and advocacy in their states.
Not all background data was available through Census
statistics or in other public domains. Therefore, the decision
was made to use the Right to Information (RTI) Act to
gather missing information. RTIs were sent to a number
of government departments, including state-owned mining
companies, to find out the number of children working in
mines, the number of people displaced by projects, various
health statistics for people living in these districts and other
information that is not readily available. (See end of Part 2
for responses to RTIs filed).
The main methodology used for field case studies was
to understand the overall development indicators of the
children living around the mines while also identifying the
children working in the mines, the nature of their work and
working conditions and how their social life is impacted
due to the external influences of the complex ad hoc
communities of workers, truckers, contractors, traders and
other players who form an amorphous and unscrupulous
floating population around the mines. This was done through
visits to villages, schools, anganwadi centres, primary health
centres, orphanages, company run schools and hospitals,
meetings with panchayat leaders, village elders, women’s
groups, workers’ unions, local officials and NGOs, as well as
visits to the mine sites.