KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – The Indian government has promulgated the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill 2016 amid charges of diluting penal provisions, complicity in promoting child labour and its ineffectiveness in curbing the use of child labour in the mica mining industry across the country.

The new legislation prunes the list of “hazardous occupations” from 83 in the previous law to only three — mining, inflammable substances and hazardous processes as defined in the Factories Act.

However, several MPs and mining industry activists have taken issue with the provision that children are allowed to work in “family enterprises outside school hours and holidays”.

Several MPs and activists have pointed out the ambiguous definition of “family enterprises”. Even though mining remains a “hazardous occupation”, it was pointed out that most mica mining across key provinces was performed by largely small enterprises run by extended family enterprises engaging children, while traders formed the key link to buyers of mica, domestic and international.

The amended legislation bans employment of children under 14 years across all sectors, prohibits employing those aged between 14 and 18 years in “hazardous occupations”, and introduces stringent fines and jail terms for offenders.

Several law makers believe that the employment of children in family enterprises is a loophole, which provides an escape route to all those employing children in mining and that the government does not have the means to verify if every child employed forms part of the family owning the enterprise.

“If we pass this Bill, we will be complicit in promoting child labour in India,” an MP said during debate on the legislation in Parliament, according to reports.

“Employment of a child in a family enterprise is not about skilling. Such children, even if they are to be employed in family enterprises, are often employed against the will of the child. This is slavery,” another MP was reported to have argued in the course of the debate.

According to published reports on a survey conducted last month by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, the study showed that an estimated 20 000 children were employed in Jharkhand and Bihar, two key provinces with widespread illegal mining of mica.

According to the latest data available from the Indian Bureau of Mines, as per United Nations Framework Classification norms, the total mica resource in India is estimated at 532 237 t of which 190 741 t is in the reserves category. Production of mica in 2015 (according to the latest data available) is estimated at 1 610 t, up 25% on the previous year, with only six miners accounting for 86% of the total production and all 46 operational mines in the private sector.

Even though 60% of global trade in mica originates from India, with the biggest buyers being pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, the entire trade channel linking the mines to consumers is unregulated with no checks or audits on the engagement of child labour in mica mining.