As
already identified, the greater negative impact of mining has been experienced
by women as the large-scale mining activities have taken place in the rural
areas where there are majority of the poor women. World Development Report
(1998) observed that the changes, as a result, in the economic lives of these
rural women with their already marginalized status in the developing nations
are further degraded, being completely transformed from a position of dignity
to one of humiliation and deprivation .National family health survey (1993);
Saxen and Dayal (1997); Fernades and Mesquite (1995) noted that in most third world countries especially in the
rural areas, lack of skills and poverty make them resort to any available type
of occupation including those that are exploitative.
Misra
(2003) equally noted that the age distribution of women mine workers in India
is an interesting indicator of women’s exploitation in mining. In the age group
of 5-14 women form 40% of the workforce, in the 15-19 age group, they form 27%
and there is a corresponding decrease as the age of women increase. While it is
not to say that exploitation of male children is desirable, the fact that girl
child labour is employed on a large scale in mining is a ground for serious
concern.
The
ministry of labour’s statistical profile of women and labour, in its fifth issue (1998) identified that the tragic
paradox of women’s labour in the organized sector is their highly visible
presence as contract labour within the public
sector mines. It was noted that in India, when employing women as daily
wage labourers or bonded labourers, to perform the same tasks, their dress does
not become a hindrance to the mining companies. When one passes through the
stretches of coal mines or iron ore mines, one witnesses women labourers by the thousands employed in
head loading, stone breaking, cleaning and other forms of daily wage labour,
where they are entirely at the Mercy of petty contractors and have absolutely
no work safety or security.
Not
withstanding the skeletal work done on African women quarry miners, there are
few like the work of John (1980) on the pit women’ of South Africa, where he
identified that women’s work in the mines have remained obscured and hidden,
forgotten and devalued. He stated that the mine pits have come to be the
playing fields of men, the work either excluding women altogether or
attributing a lower place to women. He identified that there are differences
when studying women in mining partly
because the different countries
experience different problems even in developing countries because of
the multitude of identities of women in developing countries. Lahiri-Dutt
(2000) observed that there is not yet enough literature that illuminates how
gendered identities and inequalities are constructed and sustained in mines in developing
countries, but poor working conditions in the pits of the past, gave rise to a
strong sense of occupational identity, which often extended to entire mining
communities, but nevertheless rendered women and their work in the mines
invisible. The heavy manual character of the work, the dirt and risk tend to be
emphasized and tend to make the male miners the typical labourers, and to
protect their interest over those of
women workers (Eveline 1995).
Hentschel,
Hruschka and Priester (2001) did a study on artisanal and small- scale mining:
challenges and opportunities in twelve selected countries; (Bolivia, Peru,
Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the
Philippines) (See www. iied. Org /mmsd), and observed that there are regional
differences but in most cases common issues. The ASM were characterized by a
number of issues which include; low
level of occupational safety and health care, poor qualification of personnel
at all levels of the operation, low level of salaries and incomes, lack of
social security, insufficient consideration of environmental issues etc.
According to the analysis, there are five major health risks in small-scale
mining and processing; these are; exposure to dust (Silicosis); effects of
noise and vibration, poor ventilation
(heat, humidity, lack of oxygen); and effect of over-exertion, in adequate work
space and inappropriate equipment.