About us

Understanding the Geography

India is the 2nd largest producer of mica and the states of Bihar and Jharkhand are globally renowned for producing some of the highest-quality mica. Bihar and Jharkhand, two of India's poorest states, see rampant child labour in mica mines due to their economic struggles and resource richness. Financial hardship forces families to send their children to work instead of school. Children's small size makes them ideal for navigating the narrow caves and tunnels of mica extraction.

Bihar and Jharkhand are economically backward and rich in natural resources. This backwardness has led to development of extremist groups in the state; restricting access to government programs for the citizens.

How It Began?

Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an anti-slavery and anti-trafficking grassroots movement, made multiple visits to Giridih and Koderma districts in Jharkhand and Nawada in Bihar in 2004 - 2005 to locate, research and analyse the situation of child labour in mica mines. The preliminary research found over 5,000 children engaged in child labour in such mines. By 2019, when the programme expanded to more villages, the number increased to over 20,000.

Children working there were -

From backward and socially deprived families
School drop-outs
Exploited as bonded labourers by the companies
Entangled into the vicious cycle of intergenerational poverty by the owners of the mines.

Due to the security threats, government agencies had not been able to visit the area for nearly 17 years. Resulting in the unavailability of health care infrastructure and clean water systems, lack of access to government programmes, there were few if any functional schools, etc.

In 2005, a unique transformative programme was started in 9 villages to be transformed into Child friendly villages towards creation of Child Labour Free Mica. This unique intervention brought together children, the community, civil society members, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the government bodies to eliminate all forms of child labour from mica mining regions of Jharkhand & Bihar in India.

What We Do?

The Child Labour Free Mica programme led by the children and the communities followed a bottom-up approach to bring an ecosystem-level change by -

Addressing the water crisis
Creating Child-Friendly Villages
Developing Survivor-Led Intelligence Network (SLIN)
Building NGO Partnership
Partnering with Central Government
Partnering with State Government
Conducting rescue operations

During the last 20 years, the programme led to -

Developing a sense of ownership in the community, especially children
Support from the corporates against engaging child labour in the mica mines
Support from Government agencies expediting the achievement of the desired goals

Impact

In the last 20 years, the programme has developed an indigenous Indian solution for the social transformation of the community and the elimination of forced labour, slavery, exploitation, and abuse of children in the unorganised sector of the global supply chain.

684 child-friendly villages
1, 37, 997 children protected
20, 584 children withdrawn from labour
30, 364 children enrolled and regularised in schools
2, 75, 516 people benefitted from infrastructure development & linkage with welfare programmes

Over the past two decades, "generational change" has been the most powerful force in eliminating child labour in mica mines. Community-based systems, linked to government programmes, ensure children from mica-dependent villages stay out of the mines. This proven approach has reduced all forms of exploitation of children. Monitoring has improved within villages through Children's Councils and women's groups, and at broader levels through Village Level Child Protection Committees and officials. Today, active village groups and committees continue to protect children's rights and raise awareness.