Skip to main content

eonads

Ads by Eonads

adzhitz

Uganda: where poverty, child labour and exploitation reign

Buried in the earth in a rich seam carving its way from Lake Victoria in Uganda, lies the world's most prized metal, gold. But the fight to extract it is perilous and often deadly. Guy Kelly reports on conditions for the desperate workers who dig for it, and the people seeking a glimmer of hope
In the life of an artisanal gold miner, every day is a lottery, but no one ever seems to win.
The sun is high on just another Thursday in Tiira, a scattered village in Uganda’s south-eastern corner, 20 miles north of Lake Victoriaand within spitting distance of the Kenyan border. At the end of a potholed track snaking off from the parish’s main strip, quiet has fallen over Margaret Ikee’s mine.
It’s a hot, languid sort of afternoon. In the entrance to the mine, chickens and barefoot toddlers, roughly matched in number and not far off in size, scurry around on the blood-orange ground. Two tethered goats look on. Bar the odd rooster crow, the only noise is the scrape and thud of spade on earth. Scrape, thud. Scrape, thud.It’s dividing time. On a patch of land between a small shack and a huge opencast pit, 17 local men, women and children patiently encircle a man with a shovel. Each is carrying a primary-coloured plastic basin, waiting for the man to fill it. The clay ore will contain gold. Excruciatingly meagre amounts of gold – a ton holds no more than four or five grams – but gold none the less. It’s up to them to complete the unimaginably laborious, filthy and dangerous process required to extract the precious metal from their basinful, before middlemen arrive to rip them off, buying it at dubious prices in order to sell it on, often to Indians, at the market in Kampala. From there, via further trading and refineries, it’ll slowly make its way to us – ending up in our jewellery, mobile phones, engineering parts, money or even dental crowns.
This is a gold mine, but there are no glinting, booty-laden carts rumbling in and out of dark tunnels on rail tracks; no pith-helmeted prospectors barking orders. Instead, there’s an acre or two of scrappy land, a few huts – some made of brick, some of mud – and a very big hole that dozens of people rely on for survival.
The money is horrific, the conditions worse. Look hard enough as you cross rural Africa, Asia or Latin America, though, and you’ll find thousands of artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) sites like it. It’s an informal, often illegal industry that accounts for only about 10 per cent of the global gold supply (the rest comes from massive, legally recognised multinational mines), but it employs 90 per cent of the world’s gold miners, most of whom are forced in through poverty.

Comments

Post a Comment

enoads

Ads by Eonads

adorion

a-ads

Adpays

Adsmodren

cpm ad

cpm media

a- ads

Popular posts from this blog

Child Labour data

The International Labour Organisation states in its latest  World Report on Child Labour (2013)  that there are around 265 million working children in the world—almost 17 per cent of the worldwide child population. According to the publicly available data discussed in more detail below, Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where child labour is most prevalent. While absolute numbers are still high, particularly in those countries with the lowest standards of living, from a historical viewpoint there are concrete examples of countries that managed to virtually eliminate widespread child labour in the course of a century. The United Kingdom is a case in point. In terms of recent developments, global trends show a significant reduction in child labour over the last couple of decades. However, there is wide dispersion in the progress that different countries have achieved. Long-run history of child labour in today’s rich countries Historical stu...
Post a Comment
Read more

child labour truth in pakistan

Child labour is a sad truth of Pakistan and unfortunately it prevails in many forms in the country. According to a survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, out of the estimated 40 million children in Pakistan, approximately 19 million are working as child labourers. This is unacceptable given that a principle of policy in Pakistan is to provide free education and rid the country of illiteracy. In many cases, the parents of child labourers cannot afford education or they believe that education does not lead to marketable skills. Unfortunately the rate of child labour is increasing in Pakistan. It is primarily due to the reason that 25% percent of people are living below poverty-line in Pakistan and they are unable to fulfil their basic needs, hence they have to force their children to struggle in such a young age. It is very sad to see these young children who should be going to schools at this age are going to kilns and factories and the hands that should be holding pens a...
Post a Comment
Read more

India under criticism

India has come under criticism after its parliament approved several controversial amendments to the country's child labour bill. The new bill prohibits children under the age of 14 from working - but makes an exception for "family businesses", including extended family. It also reduces the number of jobs 15-18 year olds are banned from doing. The government says the law will help poor families earn a living and give children a chance to acquire skills. However, the UN children's agency Uniindia cef and Indian Nobel prize winner Kailash Satyarti are among those to have criticised the bill. 'Invisible labour' Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya told parliament that the exemptions would allow the government to "practically implement" the act. "We have enabled many safeguards in the new bill," he said. Under current legislation, children younger than 14 are only prohibited from working in jobs that are defined as...
Post a Comment
Read more