Almost all makeup products use a mineral called mica in them. Its reflective properties are responsible for the shimmer in makeup products. It is used in different industries like automobiles, buildings, and electronics. India is one of the largest suppliers of mica worldwide, exporting 71.3 million USD worth of mica in the fiscal year 2019 India exported 71.3 million USD worth of mica.
All this information seems very unalarming until you find out that mica is mainly mined through child labor in illegal mica mines. Children as young as 5 years old are part of this lucrative underground business.
In India Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh are the top mica producing states. These states have entire tribes and villages that are dependent on illegal mica mining for their livelihood. They risk their lives every day and go into 5-8 feet deep rat holes with minimal safety precautions. The tribes that are completely dependent on mica for their survival have high cases of tuberculosis which is caused by the mica dust. They are also prone to lung diseases and being crushed to death by collapsing mines.
Everyone who is a part of the illegal mining has either witnessed a death in the mines or knows someone who has been a victim of the caving walls of the mines. Such accidents are mostly never reported to the authorities in the fear that the government will investigate the deaths which will lead to tighter rules around the illegal mining practices. A lot of these deaths are covered up by giving families “blood money” to be silent. The workers are trapped so badly in the trade that they clear up dead bodies before officials can make it to the site to investigate them. The recurring accidents often make some of the workers avoid the mines for a while, but the need to fill their stomachs and make a livelihood always brings them back. The mines are responsible for both the life and death of hundreds of families. Just as it provides for them it takes from them.
A kilo of the highest grade of mica in the international market is valued at 2000 dollars but the workers get around 20 rupees ($ 0.27) for every kg of the same quality of mica. The workers are paid weekly which means in the best-case scenario they earn 140 rupees ($ 1.89) every week per person while they should be getting a fortune of almost 14,000 dollars. But a lot of the illegal mica which is mined are sold for as low as 5 rupees ($ 0.067) per kilogram. For most of these workers mining of mica is almost like a family profession which their predecessors have been doing for decades. The workers do not have any alternative sources to earn their livelihood and thus get stuck in this horrible trade, where they are exploited daily.
All this illegal mica is exported out of the country through the Bay of Bengal. The Jharkhand government is trying to tackle the problem on multiple fronts – whether it be boosting school enrolment, helping people find jobs or setting up businesses to avoid making their children work, or legalizing mica mines to improve conditions. The spotlight on illegal mining and higher awareness of child labor laws has led to a decrease in parents sending children to the mines but it still does not eradicate the problem entirely.
Many are arguing against and for the legalization of mica mining. Some say it would allow the government to have tighter laws for the safety and security of the miners while providing them with a relatively safer income source. Others argue legalizing and having heavy regulations on the mining of mica won’t stop the child labor in mica mining just as child labor has not stopped in coal mines despite being regularized by Coal India Limited.
There are a few non-government institutes like RMI (Responsible Mica Initiative) which was set up in 2016 to end child labor and improve conditions in Indian mica mines by 2021. RMI has put children back in schools and connected families to state welfare schemes such as health insurance. Some ethical companies like Lush guarantee transparency in their supply chain or use synthetic mica which works just as well in cosmetics and should in other industries too.
Although it seems like there are not many solutions to stop illegal mining, we can all spread awareness and ensure it gets more media coverage. This will help make the issue a top priority for the government to tackle. The government has turned a blind eye to the issue but we should make it our mission to demand justice for all the innocent kids and families that are trapped in the mines.
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