E-mail: mihirdeb@gmail.com ASM in India: definition; social, gender and legal concerns; recommendations Prof. Mihir Deb School of Environmental Studies University of Delhi, Delhi 110007 E-mail: mihirdeb@gmail.com

Definitional confusion ASM in India is wide-ranging in mining practices, size, legality and production, giving rise to significant confusion over its definition. It does not find any direct mention in government’s National Mineral Policy (NMP) and Mines & Minerals Regulations & Development (MMRD) Act MMRD Act provides a 2-fold classification: Major & Minor minerals The MMRD Act empowers the State Governments to frame their own rules for mining minor minerals. 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India (1996), has a provision in the Minor Mineral Rules to obtain the recommendations of Gram Sabha or Panchayats for granting of leases in the scheduled areas.

Definitional confusion - continues NMP mentions ‘efforts will be made to promote small scale mining of small deposits……In grant of mineral concessions…preference shall be given to the scheduled tribes’ Minor minerals include: building stones, gravel, clay, sand etc. Mineral Conservation & Development Rule, 1988, identifies 2 categories of minerals: A & B, based on labour employment and standard of mechanical equipments used. Category B apparently includes the smaller mines, which together constitute ~88% of all reported mines, producing 10% of the total value of mineral production.

Need for distinction between SSM & ASM in India Small Scale Mining Carried out with some mining rights under some statutory control. Or illegally, with connivance of local officials Organized operations Provision of mining minor minerals in NMP-MMRD Minimal data available Artisanal Mining Carried out by indigenous communities, mostly in remote locations, on and from common lands. Unauthorized & non-legal Informal, unorganized and unregulated operations Confusion over jurisdiction and definition. Total lack of quantitative data

Salient features of Artisanal Mining Community level operation, often tribal communities Employs large number of people from low income groups Shallow or surficial nature of deposits Labour intensiveness, Semi or unskilled workforce Manual operations or low technology deployment. Small production and small income generated. Range of minerals mined from gemstones, diamond, gold to gravels, sand & building stones; coal and lignite

Long historical tradition of Artisanal mining in India Mentioned in Kautilya’s Arthashastra (oldest written record of mining policies and practices of the time) dated at 400 BC. Extensive ancient workings in different parts of India Modern mining started during colonial occupation Most legal frameworks of the present day were established during the colonial times to control the mineral resources of India by the British state. European models of geology and exploration, labour relations and management techniques were introduced which altered many of the earlier systems, rendering traditional artisanal mining invisible and in some cases illegal.

Present status of ASM-SSM in India A conservative estimate of people involved in artisanal and small mines and quarries is of the order of 3 million. Confusion remains depending on the definition of what exactly is ASM/SSM and who is a miner. From sand mining to stone quarrying, alluvial gold digging and coal ‘collection’, to licensed operations meeting local needs or exporting their products elsewhere within the region or in neighboring countries. Clearly, ASM/SSM occurs in scattered ways taking many different forms in different regions. Indirectly, these informal practices (digging, cutting, panning, processing, breaking, amalgamating, carrying, transporting, and marketing ) together provide livelihood for at least 6 million people. Recent liberalization of the economies has caused a large number of people to become jobless in the conventional fields. The displacement of rural workers from the agricultural sector has caused an exodus of labour, seasonally or permanently, from that sector.

Social concerns High direct and indirect costs of informal work in the ASM sector: long and unscheduled hours of work lack of benefits and social security, education and health care occupational health hazards high indebtedness and periodic/seasonal shocks to work insecurity of work and income from local officials, police and middlemen variability and volatility of income, lack of training, and lack of legal status, organization and voice.

Gender issues In contrast to large-scale mining, the involvement of women in small-scale mining activities is generally high, performing multiple roles. In the actual mining jobs, panning, processing, transportation and related jobs, the percentage of women vary from a low of 10% to a high of 50%. The numbers have increased with decline in alternative occupations, such as forest-based livelihoods. Most women come from poor, indigenous and marginal ethnic communities such as low castes with low levels of literacy and usually in younger age categories.

Gender issues in SSM Jobs in SSM are sexually segregated . This leads to the unfortunate lack of identification of women as ‘miners’. Women work in large numbers and are subjected to: risky and manual jobs in the mines and quarries, low wages (less then men) and often as part of family labor. serious health hazards at times affecting reproductive health sexual exploitation. rare and unpaid holidays, unpaid pregnancies Work without toilets or living facilities women are never recruited as long-term wageworkers. They are almost always employed as casual workers or contract workers.

Legal concerns ASM - Illegal or Non-legal? Is there an official market for the ASM product or are there middlemen and mafia involved? Who fixes the price? Who are the stakeholders in a particular ASM activity? Is there a Union looking after the interests of ASM workers? Is there a redressal mechanism available in SSM activities?

Glimpse of a survey conducted for ASM activity in primary lode gold deposit near Hosur, northern Karnataka, South India About 200 people are involved in ASM activity; 70-80 being women Broadly family based practice where men enter the abandoned mines to collect the quartzose ore, children help them in the crushing activities and women are mostly involved in recovering the gold through panning and Hg amalgamation Families earn Rs 300 to 500 weekly by selling about 2 gms of gold to a gold merchant Villagers keep track of the market price of gold and its fluctuations through local newspapers which account for their variable earnings They receive no aid from governmental or non-governmental agencies Unaware of any kind of health hazard due to handling of mercury for gold extraction

Abandoned BGML shaft, Hosur

Innovative method of rock crushing

Panning of crushed rock

Women in the family help in panning

Hg globule added to extract the gold fines

Hg on hand of the panner: note the scar

Need of the hour…. Clear-cut definition and distinction between artisanal and small-scale mining in India Legal status for artisanal mining in India Developing a national database, monitoring and regulating ASM activities Providing education, health care and marketing facility to the ASM workers

Recommendations: in the perspective of Millennium Development Goals Recognition of the poverty alleviation potential of this sector. The World Bank (2002) does not see artisanal mining as strictly a mining problem ‘but rather as a poverty issue which must be addressed by a comprehensive approach.’ Establishing sustainable livelihoods for local communities in mineral-rich tracts. Create a broader information base, including a database about the ASM. Information and interpretation of their livelihood needs for developing policy measures. Locate the responsible body (e.g. Gram Panchayats) within the administration to deal with artisanal mining, given the neglect of higher state bodies.

Recommendations continued Review the existing legal frameworks in the country relating to mining as a whole and incorporating artisanal mining in it, and make them more realistic, unambiguous and pro-poor. Provide this sector of concentrated poverty with suitable education, health care and training. Women workers in many of the informal mines in India form the ‘poorest of the poor’. Therefore Gender sensitization of the stakeholders and targeting developmental interventions to women workers would have significant impacts on improving the livelihoods of millions of people.

Achievements Above recommendations have been given to the Government of India, Ministry of Mines’ Working Group on Mineral Exploration and Development for the Planning Commissions’ Eleventh Five year Plan under Human Resource Development

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