Mining and Conservation Displace Adivasis in Panna, India
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Mining and conservation displace adivasis in Panna, India The adivasi communities in Panna district in Madhya Pradesh are losing their access to safe drinking water, food, medicine and other produce from the forest due to increasing mining activities and the establishment of wildlife reserves. They are evicted from their villages and left with few other options than to work in the same mines that are destroying their traditional livelihoods. Through persistent advocacy by Keystone Foundation, Dhaatri Resource Centre for Women and Children and local partner Prithvi Trust, small steps forward are taken in protecting the rights of the adivasi to sustainable livelihoods and a clean environment. The state of Madhya Pradesh in livelihood for the adivasi communities Panna district and 101 stone quarries. central India is one of the country’s have been subsistence farming and In reality, however, it appears that least developed states. A third of the collecting forest produce. Their another 700 illegal diamond mines and population are adivasis, the original poverty and landlessness, however, 500 stone quarries are operational. inhabitants of the area who have increasingly make them dependent The government auctions leases historically been marginalised by a on working as day labourers in the for stone mining, which are allotted highly feudal system that continues diamond and stone mines, where without an environmental clearance up to today. As a result, landlessness working conditions are inhumane and process. Sanitation and water logging and illiteracy are very high. While their rights are persistently violated. issues in the diamond and stone poverty rates in India are around mining sites pose an environmental 30% on average, 55% of the adivasis THE IMPACTS OF MINING ON hazard to local villages and their cattle. in Madhya Pradesh live below the WOMEN AND CHILDREN Often both legal and illegal mines end poverty line1. 60% of their children Keystone Foundation and Dhaatri up closing without any environmental are undernourished2. The state is Resource Centre for Women and clean-up or land restoration, leaving rich in mineral resources and holds Children support local partner behind large open and dangerous pits. the largest reserves of diamond and organisation Prithvi Trust in 10 villages u copper in the country. Nearly a third of (around 6200 people) in Panna district Madhya Pradesh is covered by forest, that are highly impacted by the NOTES which is increasingly converted either mining activities. According to the 1 UNDP, Madhya Pradesh Human for mining purposes or to establish figures of the Ministry of Mines, there Development Report, 2007 wildlife reserves. The main sources of are two licensed diamond mines in 2 ibid u Most of the mines where the adivasi work are illegal. The small-scale Tigers displace adivasi communities in Panna investors operate without formal There are 11 National Parks and 11 Wildlife Sanctuaries contracts in terms of environmental in Madhya Pradesh, mostly located in adivasi regions. or technical accountability. Labour is In the name of protecting the environment and wildlife, hired on a daily wage basis without adivasi villages have been evicted from their original habitat. This registration or insurance coverage. People work for long hours and also happened with the Panna Tiger Reserve. Villagers are no without any safety precautions taken. longer permitted to enter the forest to collect firewood, to graze Accidents are common, but there is their cattle or to collect forest products. Meanwhile, officials turn a no support from the mine owners or blind eye to the illegal mining that is taking place inside the buffer contractors for injuries or occupational zone of the Panna Tiger Reserve. Many adivasi communities have illnesses. Many mine workers suffer been coaxed to give consent to relocation on verbal and false from the lung disease silicosis. promises of better facilities and monetary benefits. Once evicted, The impact on women and children they are faced with the challenges of finding new housing, sources merits special attention. First of all, of livelihood, access to water and firewood, education and medical women workers face all the same facilities. The government does not provide any of this; monetary occupational hardship and risks as men compensation for the evicted villages is considered the end of do, but receive only half their wage all State responsibility. The result is that many adivasi end up as (Rs. 100 or approximately€E1.35 per seasonal labour migrants, social cohesion breaks down, and only day). Secondly, women are forced to bring their infants and children to the elderly persons who have no physical ability to migrate remain in mine sites as there is no support for the relocated villages. child care. Frequently the children go without food all day, play in the mine pits and consume contaminated water. In India the Mines Act prescribes access for workers and their children to crèches, toilets, safe drinking water and shelter, but none of this is available at the mining sites in Panna. Thirdly, child labour is common in the stone quarries and diamond mines. Children start working from the age of 5 or 6. According to government statistics, 9730 children aged 5 to 14 years3 work in the mines in Panna. However, the estimates by our field partner reveal much higher numbers. In fact, adolescent boys and girls often are the main breadwinners as their parents suffer from silicosis and other occupational illnesses. Many children are addicted to substances in order to cope with the physical stress of working in the mines for long hours. Fourthly, studies reveal that adivasi women who have been evicted from u NOTE 3 Dhaatri Resource Centre, HAQ Centre for Child Rights, Samata, 2010, India’s Childhood in the Pits. u their land and whose families are now Prithvi Trust has nevertheless booked • filing for compensation of silicosis working in the mines face anxiety, a few first successes through tireless victims and follow up with the depression and high levels of stress. campaigning and advocacy. First, in National Human Rights Commission Since many men are suffering from 2015 the National Green Tribunal and the local labour department and silicosis and alcoholism, the burden ordered the closure of illegal diamond district administration of mine labour and of relocating and mines in Panna district. The extent • survey and action for eradication of rebuilding their villages largely falls on to which this order is implemented, child labour and facilitating children the women. and the consequences for workers being admitted into government who lose their source of income once schools again, will be closely monitored. • documentation of impacts of mining RESPONSE BY CIVIL SOCIETY TO Second, Prithvi Trust successfully and the National Park on women PERSISTENT VIOLATION OF THE supported 13 families from one through interns and research LAW village to claim formal title deeds to students Adivasi communities in Panna district their lands under the Forest Rights • reviewing the work of the human are losing their livelihood sources Act of 2006. Thirdly, the National rights defenders and strengthening as the mining operations destroy Commission for Human Rights, upon their capacities to advocate at local natural resources and water bodies a complaint filed by Prithvi Trust, level and represent the problems and make land unfit for farming. This ordered for monetary compensation to of women and children with local situation goes against a range of victims of silicosis. Of the hundreds of administration safeguards in the Indian Constitution silicosis cases identified, only 3 widows that protect the rights of adivasis have received compensation so far. However, national and local and their natural resources. It also is The process of evidence building, governments as well as the companies a violation of the Forest Rights Act medical certification and making involved will need to take their of 2006 and of the UN Declaration claims to the ministry proves very responsibility to improve the situation on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples complicated. of the adivasi. If not, the rights of (UNDRIP), which India is signatory to. people in the Panna district, notably The terrible working conditions in the Meanwhile, the evicted adivasi the Right to Food, Water and a mines are a direct violation of legal communities continue to be supported Healthy Environment, will sadly remain provisions such as the labour rights through different strategies and theoretical. This case also highlights included in the Mines Act (specifying activities, including: the need to align conservation policies wages, work safety, accident benefits with inclusive development and human and insurance, etc.), the Unorganised • training by Keystone Foundation rights. In India Keystone, Dhaatri and Workers’ Social Security Act 2008 that and Dhaatri of the team of Prithvi on their partners will continue to hold this provides women with basic human issues of gender rights and mining dialogue with affected communities, rights protection at the workplace, and and forest rights civil society and the State. the Equal Remuneration Act of 1976 • facilitating a dialogue between that lays down equal pay for equal the communities and the district work for all genders. All these Acts administration on the issue of are deliberately ignored by the mining eviction and people’s rights companies and contractors in Panna • filing a public interest litigation at district.