While helicopters carrying mining barons hovered over Bellary in the state of Karnataka, 10-year-old Sapna (name changed) crouched on the ground smashing pieces of iron ore with a hammer. She filled the pieces into a metal basin and loaded it into a waiting lorry.

Sapna was rescued by an NGO and admitted to school. But she would wake up at night with nightmares of loading endless basins of ore into a lorry.

Bellary is a microcosm of the dubious development model being followed across the country. Mining is what drives this so-called ‘development’. Prof T R Chandrashekar, teaches Development Studies at Hampi University.  According to him, Bellary was the fourth richest district in Karnataka, and the second fastest growing city in Karnataka after Bangalore, [but] it was behind several other poorer districts in terms of human development -- literacy, health, access to drinking water, etc.  
 

A recent fact-finding study by Samata, CACL and mm&p in Bellary found that there was no [primary education] teacher in Vitthalpura village. There were flies on the children’s food, and food packets were dated. In Rakkasagi, the school in the scheduled caste colony was being run in the teacher’s house; it did not have its own building. The primary health centre in Rakkasagi did not have the means even to test haemoglobin levels despite a high rate of anaemia among women mine workers there. In Vitthalpura, a lake used by villagers for drinking and washing has turned red from the dust from crusher sites, causing all kinds of illnesses. Everywhere, mining has made the land unproductive.
 

[A recent] report finds that children are prone to illness because they live in mining areas and work in mines. While almost 50% of children in many states across the country are malnourished, children in mining areas are much more susceptible to malnutrition, hunger and food insecurity. Displaced, homeless or living in inadequate housing conditions, forced to drop out of schools, they are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and are recruited for a number of illegal activities, even trafficking, by the mafia. Children in mining are unable to access schools or are forced to drop out of school. Mining regions have large numbers of children engaged in related hazardous activities.  
 

Large-scale mining projects are mainly situated in adivasi areas. Adivasi and dalit children suffer the most. The mining sector is largely dependent on migrant populations where children have no security.
 

(Kathyayini Chamaraj is a freelance journalist based in Bangalore who has been writing for over 24 years on development issues for Deccan Herald, The Hindu, India Together, etc. She is also Executive Trustee of CIVIC, Bangalore)

Courtesy: Infochangeindia.org

You can read the full article here