Nita Bhalla, Anuradha Nagaraj, Rina Chandran - Behind the healthy exports from India’s illegal mica mines, the toil of 20,000 child workers
In the depths of
India’s illegal mica mines, where children as young as five work alongside
adults, lurks a dark, hidden secret – the cover-up of child deaths with seven
killed in the past two months, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has
revealed.
Investigations over
three months in the major mica producing states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan
and Andhra Pradesh found child labour rife, with small hands ideal to pick and
sort the valued mineral that puts the sparkle in cosmetics and car paint. But interviews with
workers and local communities discovered children were not only risking their
health by working in abandoned “ghost” mines off official radars, but they were
dying in the unregulated, crumbling mines, with seven killed since June.
In the mud-and-brick
village of Chandwara in Bihar, a father’s grief laid bare the ugly reality of
the illegal mining that accounts for an estimated 70% of India’s mica output. Vasdev Rai Pratap’s
16-year-old son Madan was killed in a mica mine along with two other adult
workers in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand on June 23. “I didn’t know how
dangerous the work in the mines is. Had I known, I would never have let him
go,” said Pratap, sitting on a charpoy outside his home, surrounded by friends
and family who had come to mourn the teen’s death.
“They said it took
almost a day to dig out his body after the mine collapsed. They cremated him
without telling me. I didn’t even see my boy before they set him alight.” Pratap, like other
victims’ families and mine operators, has not reported the death, choosing to
accept a payment for his loss rather than risk ending the illegal mining on
protected forest land that brings income to some of India’s poorest areas. The farmer said he was
promised a Rs 100,000 payment from the operator of the mine but has yet to
receive it.
The mine where Madan
was working is illegal, and no one was available to comment on the teenager’s
death. Indian law forbids
children below the age of 18 working in mines and other hazardous industries
but many families living in extreme poverty rely on children to boost household
income... read more:
http://scroll.in/article/813033/in-indias-illegal-mica-mines-at-least-seven-child-deaths-since-june