Mining: Of Livelihoods, Displacement and Women's Rights
The horrors of land acquisition are experienced by mining-affected communities in a similar manner to - or perhaps more severely than by - communities affected by dams and other big projects. When mining leases are given, the immediate threat to local communities is displacement and land alienation, which are inevitable features of large-scale mining.
Complex formal procedures exist for acquisition of lands and for obtaining mining leases for exploration, prospecting and extraction. But in reality mining projects are almost always sanctioned to encourage and cater for the interests of the mining industries, without protecting the interests of local communities or other natural resources that exist in a mining area. The shifting focus of economic reforms in developing countries is reflected in policy changes on labour, land acquisition, forest conservation and environment protection that show an increasing disrespect on the part of the state towards the rights of communities.
Family break-up follows land alienation Mining has multiplied the exploitation and degradation of women's rights. Historically and also in the existing legal framework in most developing countries, women have few if any legal rights over lands or natural resources. And rural women are completely alienated from these accesses and rights when the mines come. Testimonies of women from mining areas show that displacement and loss of land were the most serious problems affecting their lives, as their link to livelihoods, economic and social status, health and security all depended on land and forests. Whenever villages have been displaced or affected, women have been forced out of land-based work and pushed into menial and marginalized labour as maids and servants, construction labourers and prostitutes - all highly unorganised and socially humiliating roles. Women displaced by mining have lost rights to cultivate their traditional crops. With forests cut down for mining, they are unable to collect food, animal fodder, medicines, or artisanal and ceremonial materials for consumption, community use or sale. Rural women's access to cash incomes through sale of forest produce and breeding livestock disappears. They are forced to walk miles from their villages, leaving behind their children, to collect produce or find wage labour, and are often forced to sell all their livestock. In many cases there is seasonal migration leading to work insecurity and break-up of family relations, and exposing women to additional social hazards. In the public interest? Prevailing land acquisition mechanisms in developing countries give overriding powers to the state to encroach on people's lands for any "public purpose", including mining. In most cases, communities become aware of projects only at the time of eviction, when the bulldozers move in, often supported by a police presence. Public hearings are usually biased, unpublicised and dominated by close collusion between the local administration, statutory bodies and mining companies, which results in a lack of effective objections raised by the public. In addition, in countries such as Ghana, Guinea, India and Tanzania, mining companies operate on a "deemed consent" basis, so that even without mandatory clearances their operations expand beyond lease areas and periods.
The "public purpose" of mining is highly questionable from a gender perspective, especially with regard to what women in local communities stand to gain. Anticipated economic development from mining does not accrue to local communities but on the contrary reduces local women to worse forms of survival than pre-mining conditions. Social and environmental costs and risks When companies and governments give projections of mining project costs and estimated profits, therefore, it is crucial to analyse these from the perspective of such social and environment costs as:
All these costs and risks - most of which fall disproportionately more on women and children than on men - must be evaluated in determining whether a mining project is necessary or desirable for a particular area. There needs also to be a full comparison with existing economic activities and with other possibilities for income generation. And where mining is to go ahead, there must be enforceable rules by which the extractive industries are obliged to pay full compensation for social and environmental costs incurred. Gender justice At present, by ignoring the exposure of women and their bodies to abuse and exploitation, extractive industries and their governmental and intergovernmental allies violate gender justice. The time has come to enshrine the protection of women's human rights as a priority index of human development, and for this principle to be observed by all, particularly by the mining companies themselves. Allan Lassey works with Third World Network-Africa in Ghana. Mines Minerals and People is an alliance of tribal groups and organizations working in mining areas and tribal lands in India. This guest editorial originally appeared in TWN-Africa's "Mining & Environment Agenda", August 2003. --- OneWorld Guest Editorials represent the viewpoint of the authors and not necessarily that of the OneWorld Network. Read and comment on previous Guest Editorials. If you would like to contribute or suggest a future OneWorld Guest Editorial, please contact miles.litvinoff@oneworld.net. |
Comment List
"When industries bargain with States without public input"Time: 11/14/2003 04:37
Comment:
The state of government-industry relations in the United States needs to be reformulated with a two-fold strategy; it involves a campaign to change the "public interest" criteria in the charter of the WTO, so that liberalization of trade also enforces State advocacy of humanitarian and environmental standards - across the board. Non-compliance fees will challenge trade in a positive manner. The other fold is to create jobs in fields that address multiple issues (environmental and developmental) locally and, in tandem, globally - that trade, if headed by non-profit parameters and mission, will spur stabilty and wide, long-term growth and sustainability. |
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