| World Day Against Child Labour
2005: Digging for survival - The harsh reality of child mining worldwide
Of the
estimated 250 million child labourers worldwide, the ILO believes more
than one million work in mines and quarries. Under ILO Convention No.
182, working in mines and quarries can be defined as one of the worst
forms of child labour –
exposing children to severe occupational hazards and often depriving
them of basic freedoms. Still, the ILO says child labour in mines and
quarries is a problem that can be solved.
KATHMANDU
(ILO online) – In one of the many dusty quarries in Nepal, Sudha began
work as a stone crusher when she was just 12 years old. Once she dreamed
of an education, but now the burden of work and concern for her family’s
well-being rule that out. Her wages, though small, are critical to her
family’s survival. Sometimes Sudha’s brother, sister and parents work
along side her in the dust and heat, crushing stone to augment their meagre
earnings from farming.
Asked
why she continues to do this back-breaking, dangerous work, Sudha sighs
and stares at the sky. “There is no alternative”, she says, adding that
for her, this is her destiny – her pre-ordained role in life.
Over
one million children worldwide share a similar destiny working in mines
and quarries. The incidence of child labour in these sectors is far greater
in some regions than others. For example, in the Philippines, nearly 18,000
children between five and 17 perform such work. In Nepal, approximately
32,000 children work in stone quarries. And in Niger alone, a staggering
250,000 children are employed in both small-scale mines and quarries,
accounting for roughly half the total number of persons doing such work
in the entire country.
These
children labour above and beneath the earth, in conditions even adults
could hardly stand. Underground, they endure stifling heat and darkness,
set explosives for underground blasts, and crawl or swim through dangerous,
unstable tunnels. Above ground, they dive into rivers in search of minerals
or may dig sand, rock and dirt and spend hours pounding rocks into gravel
using heavy, oversized tools made for adults.
Because
the money they earn is crucial to ensuring that they and their families
survive, many are unable to attend school at all. These children are digging
for survival.
A
closer look
While
many forms of child labour are harmful, children who work in the mining
sector face particular danger as the conditions often pose a serious risk
to their health and well-being. In the Mererani gem mines in Tanzania,
for example, children as young as eight or nine descend 30 metres underground
to spend seven or eight hours a day digging through narrow passages without
ventilation and with only a flashlight or candle for light. Tunnel collapse
is an ever present danger. Sometimes children hide in tunnels deep underground
during the blasts hoping to be first to find exposed gems. ‘Bonuses’ they
receive for these finds are their only hope of pay.
Many
suffer serious physical injury or lose their lives because of the risks
they take. In the absence of proper medical care, injuries and health
problems sustained in the course of their work can have life-long effects.
Despite
ongoing efforts to eliminate the practice, child mining and quarrying
is still found all over the world, most often in small-scale underground
and open-cast mines and quarries. There, they work in the extraction and
processing of various types of ore and minerals, including gold, silver,
iron, tin, emeralds, coal, chrome, marble and stone. Today’s child miners
do not work directly for big mining companies. They may work for a small
local mining or quarrying concern or with their own families on small
concessions near bigger mines. They may also work in mines abandoned by
multi-national companies when large-scale mining became unprofitable.
Eliminating
child labour in mines and quarries requires an understanding of the complex
nature of the problem. The small-scale enterprises that employ most child
miners are unregulated and often undocumented. Without accurate information
on the scope of the problem, it is difficult to address it effectively.
Also, many mining enterprises are family-run, with the money from mining
often ensuring the family’s survival. Children cannot be withdrawn from
labour in the mining sector until adequate alternative sources of support
for their families are in place. Children who leave mining must then have
access to good quality education with real prospects of meaningful employment
when they leave school. This is the only real way of breaking the cycle
of poverty afflicting their communities.
Putting
plan into action
For
Sudha and more than a million children like her, life can be better. Through
its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC),
the International Labour Organization (ILO) is working worldwide to ensure
that no child has to toil in a quarry or mine.
Pilot
projects undertaken by ILO/IPEC in Mongolia, Tanzania, Niger and the Andean
countries of South America have shown that the best way to assist child
miners is to work with the children’s own communities. Mining and quarrying
communities have been helped to organize cooperatives and improve productivity
by acquiring machinery, thus eliminating or reducing the need for child
labour. They have also been assisted in obtaining legal protection and
developing essential services such as health clinics, schools and sanitation
systems.
These
projects have already begun to prove that while difficult, the problem
of child mining and quarrying is not only manageable – it can be solved.
One such example is a project in the remote gold mining community of Santa
Filomena, Peru, begun in 2000 as part of an IPEC programme covering Peru,
Bolivia and Ecuador, where an estimated 200,000 children are involved
in mining.
Drawing
on the ILO model of preventing and eliminating child labour based on an
integrated approach to sustainable development, the project helped the
community to organize a community-based association to improve working
conditions, obtain basic machinery to replace the most dangerous work
performed by children, build local programmes to raise community awareness
and support alternative income-generating activities for adults so their
children don’t have to work in the mines. In 2004, the Santa Filomena
community declared itself child labour free.
Meanwhile
in Mongolia, ILO/IPEC introduced its integrated approach in 2003, where
of the 100,000 people who work in informal gold mines, between 10 and
15 per cent are children. The collaborative project between ILO/IPEC and
MONEF (Mongolian Employer’s Federation) has made great progress in not
only improving relations between local authorities, informal miners, and
formal mining companies and educating local miners on issues of occupational
safety and health, but it has also enrolled former child miners into non-formal
education (NFE) and technical college courses.
In
Zamaar Soum, for example, 37 children between six and 15 years old have
begun an interactive, participatory NFE program that provides a safe and
stimulating environment in which to learn. In addition to conventional
topics, the NFE program covers issues like child labour, health and safety
at work, personal development and working arrangements. It is hoped that
these children will be integrated into formal school in September 2005.
The
40 adolescents between 16 and 19 years old who worked in the Zamaar Soum
mines have been enrolled in the mining technical college in Erdenet with
the aim of moving them out of labour-intensive, hazardous work and introducing
them to safe and decent employment alternatives. MONEF and its partners
are currently investigating other types of skills training for former
child miners and are helping to create job placement opportunities once
they complete the courses and are entering the labour market.
While
projects on the ground can assist child miners in a direct and practical
way, only worldwide awareness of the problem can mobilize the international
effort needed to end the practice for good. That is why on this year’s
World Day Against Child Labour, 12 June, the ILO, with the help of individual
governments and workers’ and employers’ organizations, will be focusing
not only on efforts to eradicate child labour in mining and quarrying,
but also to help communities find a sustainable footpath out of poverty
through decent work opportunities for adults and better education and
skills training alternatives for children.
Each
day, more children enter the mining and quarrying sector all over the
world, and currently the problem is far from resolved. It’s a vicious
cycle, one in which children are expected to share the burden of supporting
their families. But with measures taken to build strong, self-sustaining
communities in mining and quarrying areas, the tide can begin to turn,
and a growing number of families will have opportunities to provide their
children with a better way of life.
______________________
Union
Network International
http://www.union-network.org
- contact@union-network.org
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