National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) declares mica mining and collection in Jharkhand, India ‘Child Labour Free’!
Why Child Labour Free Mica?
Mica, an iridescent shimmery mineral used in a wide range of products from electronics and trains to beauty products and appliances, has for years been rampant with child labour where children lose blood while picking and sorting mica shards from these mines. Despite the International Labour Organization considering mining and quarrying as hazardous work and one of the worst forms of child labour, and despite the international community’s commitment to the UN SDG target to end child labour by 2025, child labour continues to persist throughout the world.
Child Labour Free Mica (CLFM) is a unique transformative program dedicated to protecting children and preventing their involvement in labour within the mica mining supply chain in Bihar and Jharkhand, India.
The programme engages with the communities, government, and partners on child labour monitoring and remediation to ensure that children from all 684 mica-revenue-dependent villages in Bihar and Jharkhand are protected from child labour and other forms of labour and exploitation.
Child Labour & SDGs
With the adoption of United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) Target 8.7, the international community made a commitment to the elimination of child labour in all its forms by 2025. However, the 2021 UNICEF’s global estimates indicated that the number of children in child labour had risen to 8.4 million children in the four years. This directed towards a first time stall in the progress made towards ending child labour in 20 years. In 2024, the UN SDG Report suggested that with global regression, the progress made towards the target for elimination of child labour has been below average.
Despite this global downturn in child labour elimination, sustained efforts in the 684 mica-dependant villages of Jharkhand and Bihar in the last 20 years have led to the elimination of child labour from mica mining from these villages. The strength of the programme lies in going beyond mere identification, releasing and rehabilitating the children engaged in labour across these villages. The programme identified the root cause for children being engaged in such hazardous activities, engaged with the community and the stakeholders to together seek lasting solutions. At the core the work is a child centric development model that underpins genuine child participation and leadership.
This indigenous Indian solution for social transformation of the community and elimination of forced labour, slavery, exploitation and abuse of children in the unorganised sector in the global supply chain, has brought inter-generational change in favour of child protection and development in the communities.
684
Child-Friendly Villages
137,997
20,584
Children Protected
children withdrawn from labour
30,364
children enrolled and regularised in schools
275,516
people benefitted from infrastructure development & linkage with welfare programmes
Partners
