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Childhood in pits, says report on Indian mining
Source: The Hindu, New Delhi, Date: , 2010
Painting a
frightening
picture of the extent of violation of children's rights in the mining
areas
across the country, HAQ, a child rights organisation, has said that the
government must recognise that children are impacted by mining.“The
impacts
must be considered and addressed at all stages of mining cycles and
this
concern must find reflection in the present governance structure,” said
non-governmental organisations HAQ, Samata, and Mines, Minerals and
People in
their latest ‘Report on the impacts of mining on children' titled
“India's
Childhood in Pits.”Malnourished, denied access to education, and living
and
working in dangerous conditions, India's “mining children” are leading
horrendous lives. Previously unexplored, and therefore inevitably
neglected,
the links between children and mining have not yet been taken seriously
by
policy-makers or activists, it says. Census 2001 reported there were
45,135 children
between 5-14 years working in the mining sector, accounting for nearly
7 per
cent of working children in India. Child labour figures are only
disaggregated
in the census up to 14 years. However, figures reveal that many in the
15-19-year group work in this sector — 161,585 according to the Census.
The
report points out that the figures provided by the Census grossly
underestimate
the scale of the problem. Organisations working on mining in Rajasthan
estimate
that around 3,75,000 children work in the mines and quarries across
that State
alone. In Karnataka, estimates suggest that there are at least a few
lakh
children engaged in mining. It also calls for addressing the glaring
loopholes
in the law, policy and implementation related to mining in general, and
private
and small scale mining in particular that are related to children.
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