Children - Terre des Hommes

36Increase in Child Labour“The image of youngsters, blackened by coaldust, lugging laden carts from tunnels deepunderground was one of the factors which stirredthe ILO membership to adopt conventions againstchild labour at the start of the 20th century.Astonishingly, almost a hundred years later, thatvery image can still be seen in small-scale mines ofAsia, Africa, Latin America, and even parts ofEurope.”- ILO, International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour,Mining and QuarryingChildren as young as 5 years of age are working, inhorrendous conditions, in mines and quarries acrossthe world. Child labour in the mining sector is prevalentin many parts of Africa, South America and Asia. Themajority are working in small scale “artisanal” mines, whichtend to be unregulated and often located in remote, hard-toreachareas. The International Labour Organization (ILO)defines child labour in mining as the “Worst Form of ChildLabour,” stating that “While all forms of child labour areharmful to children, those who work in the mining sectorare in particular danger, labouring in conditions that pose aChild labour in miningCold, dark and dangerous these "unofficial" andunregulated coal mines and gold mines are no places forchildren. Due to extreme poverty and lack of access toeducation, some feel they have little choice but to riskthe dangers. In some mines, children work as far as 90metres beneath the ground with only a rope with whichto climb in and out, inadequate ventilation and only aflashlight or candle for light. In small-scale mining, childworkers dig and haul heavy loads of rock, dive into riversand flooded tunnels in search of minerals, set explosivesfor underground blasting and crawl through narrowtunnels only as wide as their bodies. In quarries, childrendig sand, rock and dirt, transport it on their heads orbacks, and spend hours pounding larger rocks into gravelusing adult-sized tools to produce construction materialsfor roads and buildings.Source::ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Press release: Cold,serious risk to their health and well being, exposing them toserious injury or even death on a daily basis.” 135The global recession has led to an increase in small-scalemining, and thus the use of child labour, in a number of mining industry has been forced to downsize its operations.With nowhere else to go, unemployed miners have beenforced into informal, artisanal mines (that were previouslyunable to compete with the large mines when copper priceswere high) operating outside the regulatory frameworkwith poor working conditions. As a growing number ofhouseholds are feeling the effects of the recent slump in thedemand for copper, children are being forced into workingin these small-scale mines. In India, the global recession has meant that demand forminerals has reduced, and in some parts of the countrymining activity has slowed down since 2008, followingthe “boom” years of the early 21st century. This furtherhighlights the unsustainable nature of the work as manymine workers have suddenly found themselves unemployed.Since they work as daily wage labourers, with no contractsor employment rights, they do not receive compensation oreven notice of their impending unemployment. In Bellarydistrict, Karnataka, the local population reported that thenumber of child labourers in the mining sector has decreasedThe life of a child minerRani (name changed) is 10 years old and working in thesandstone mines in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. She earns Rs. 70a day, cleaning mine waste from 9am till 5pm. She worksabout 15 days a month because she gets tired and needsto rest, and sometimes can’t find work in the local mines.She has been to school (an NGO-run crèche) for just twodays in her life. She is already addicted to gutka andfights with her mother to spend money on soap and gutkafor herself.Source: Interview carried out in Jodhpur district, Rajasthan“My father died of some illness and therefore I had togo with my mother to the quarry,” said a 12 year-old girlin one of the mines in Maharahtra. She broke down whenasked to describe her work.Source: Interview in a stone quarry in Pune District, Maharashtra135. ILO, Digging for Survival: The Child Miners, 2005.136. ILO, The global crisis and rising child labour in Zambia’s mining communities: Are we facing a downward decent work spiral?, 10 August 2009.