July 2006, Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt / Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, Australia South Asia Research Centre
This report explores how we can assist in significantly increasing the ability of women workers in the artisanal and small mines to control their futures and in the process lead to noteworthy reductions in poverty. The overall objective is to ‘engender’ the informal mining industry in India – sensitisation of all stakeholders to incorporating a gender lens in ASM related measures – leading hopefully to culture-specific policy interventions to formally involve women in the development processes in the ASM areas. The research indicates towards an equitable and inclusive sustainable development for the mineral-rich tracts of India, incorporating gender equality and mainstreaming of ASM as the ultimate means of achieving sustainable development. The more specific objectives of the research are to examine women’s roles and participation in a range of informal mining practices in the country, in view of gender, labour and mining rules and policies.
The research is set in the framework of minerals that are being mined in different locations in India and the overall gender-labour scenario in these mines and quarries. Information on the existing laws and regulations with regard to women’s work in the informal mines are presented, and personal field surveys provide the basis of my observations on the proportion of women workers in ASM, the ethnic and social groupings that they come from, the sorts of jobs they perform, how much they earn in what kinds of working conditions, health issues and safety, household and intra-household resource allocation in miner families, household and labour market linkages, linkages between education, health and nutrition, access to various kinds of services, ownership of land and other property, the strategic and gender needs of these women, and the policy implications of their participation in these mines. These questions lead to the broad objectives of ‘gender equality in development’ and the increasing focus on ‘the community’ in mining regions. These sit comfortably with the current policy interventions of international agencies in developing nations.
