Media Coverage of INGON’s Campaign Against Child Labour in Rat-Hole Mining of Meghalaya

Impulse NGO Network has been addressing the issue of human trafficking and child labour in the rat-hole coal mines of the Jaintia Hills district, for the past nine years.

INGON had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Subsequently, the NGT passed a directive on April 17, 2014, banning rat-hole-mining in the state of Meghalaya.

Given below, are some of the news articles and perspectives published over the years, on child labour in rat-hole mining and our campaign against it.

2019 2018 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009

RETURN TO THE RAT HOLE
December 24, 2019 : Since 2008, Impulse NGO Network has been extensively involved in research on labor violations in coal mining areas in Meghalaya, where it claimed that more 70,000 laborers working in the mines were minors. They were mostly unaccompanied in deep coal pits, financially exploited, and abused through long working hours.

To read the full article in FP News, please click here.
Authorities must step in to curb menace of illegal mining: Hasina Kharbhih
April 30, 2019 : Authorities must step in to curb menace of illegal mining: Hasina Kharbhih

To read the full article in NE Live, please click here.
Meghalaya’s coal mines are body disposal pits too
January 21, 2019 : The dark depths of the mines, where few would dare to search, were turned into graves by
criminals, says activist.

To read the full article in The Hindu , please click here.
Exposed: Dark side of rat-hole mining in Meghalaya
January 14,2019 : Exposed: Dark side of rat-hole mining in Meghalaya

To read the full article in India Today, please click here.
MEGHALAYA ILLEGAL MINING: DIGGING THEIR OWN GRAVE
January 20, 2019 : The disaster has also exposed how mine owners’ insatiable greed and the lack of alternative livelihood for the majority of Meghalaya’s poor population have ensured the continuation of the hazardous rat-hole mining, despite a ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2014.

To read the full article in India Today, please click here.
Meghalaya Disaster Exposes Lack of Enforcement against deadly Illegal Mines
January 7, 2019 : MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Ongoing efforts to reach victims of a mining disaster in northeastern India have exposed what campaigners say is poor enforcement against such illegal
mines, where undocumented workers risk injury or death.

To read the full article in Reuters, please click here.
Killers Mines: Livelihood or dead trap
January 7, 2019 : Killers Mines: Livelihood or dead trap

To read the full article in East Mojo, please click here.
India’s Illegal Mines: Death traps no one is Policing
January 5,2019 : The deaths of 15 people have exposed the poor enforcement against these so-called ‘rat-hole’
mines.

To read the full article in Business Live, please click here.
In Meghalaya Hills where Mine Collapsed,Illegal Coal Trade Continues
January 1, 2019 : GUWAHATI: Some villagers at East Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya have been visiting a rat-hole
mine every day for over three weeks after 15 men disappeared when water flooded the illegal mine in the district on December 13. Three men among the group of migrant workers trapped in the mine’s dark labyrinth are from their village.

To read the full article in NDTV, please click here.

In Meghalaya hills where Mine Collapsed, illegal Coal Trade Continues
December 31, 2018 : In Meghalaya hills where Mine Collapsed, illegal Coal Trade Continues

To read the full article in NDTV, please click here.
Meghalaya Coal Mining – Boon Or Bane
December 29 2018 : Meghalaya Coal Mining – Boon Or Bane

To read the full article in NorthEast Tonight, please click here.
15 miners trapped since 14 days, Don’t their lives matter?
December 27, 2018 : 15 miners trapped since 14 days, Don’t their lives matter?

To read the full article in Mirror Now, please click here.
Meghalaya: Investigate Attacks on Activists for Exposing Illegal Coal Mining in the State
November 9, 2018 : The grievous attack on activist Agnes Kharshiing (pictured) and her two aides— Amita Sangma and Emiki Kurbah – in Meghalaya, highlights a pattern of reprisals against activists who are
standing up against injustice and exposing corruption in the state, said Amnesty India today.

To read the full article in Amnesty International India , please click here.
Rat-hole mines: Negating Human Lives and Ecology
January 8, 2018 : We had seen water flooding the abandoned quarries around us. I was tensed. But we were told not to worry and continue extracting the coal,” recounts a petrified Sahib Ali, a survivor of India’s latest
mining disaster in Meghalaya’s notorious “unscientific” rat-hole coal mines.

To read the full article in Mongabay, please click here.

"The end of mining has workers facing an uncertain future"
21 Apr, 2016: In an article published in TwoCircles.net, Amit Kumar, writes about the challenges faced by the workers of the previously lucrative but largely unethical coal mining industry.

To read the full article in TwoCircles, please click here.
NGT ban: Hurdles yet to be cleared
12 Apr, 2016: Two years into the ban on rat hole mining, other than dealing with the transportation of extracted coal after payment of royalty periodically, hurdles are aplenty before NGT lifts the ban once and for all.

To read the full article in The Shillong Times, please click here.
No extracted coal to be moved from Meghalaya after May 15: NGT
04 Apr, 2016: No extracted coal would be allowed to be transported from Meghalaya after May 15 when the state government will take it over and will be free to sell or auction it, the National Green Tribunal has said.

To read the full article in The Economic Times, please click here.

NGT ban on coal mining in Meghalaya makes several switch to turmeric farming
30 Nov, 2015: The National Green Tribunal ban on coal mining and transportation of coal in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills region has resulted in many of those engaged in the activity switching to turmeric farming for their livelihood.

To read the full article in DNA Daily news analysis, please click here.
Meghalaya CM Pushes for coal mining ; Critics say he’s helping wife By Krishna N. Das
28 Oct, 2015: According to the documents seen by Reuters , the Meghalaya CM is lobbying to New Delhi to lift ban on the coal mining operations in the state. At its peak the state produced coal worth $4 billion a year or about a tenth’s of India’s total production , nearly all from this form of small – scale mining.

To read the full article in Reuters India, please click here.
Meghalaya submits draft mining guidelines to NGT
30 Sep, 2015: The Meghalaya Government submitted the draft mining guidelines for coal mining activities in the state to the NGT following the interim ban on coal mining since April 2014 in the State.

To read the full article in The Times of India, please click here.
Coal transportation in Meghalaya: NGT extends time till Nov 30
02 Aug, 2015: The Meghalaya Government told the Bench that illegal mining is still going on and it has caught nearly 327 cases of illegal mining in Jaintia Hills. The Meghalaya government had asked for an extension of time for payment of royalty and transportation of already extracted coal.

To read the full article in The Hindu Business Line, please click here.
Photo Essay: The Minor Miners
12 Jun, 2015: In 2010 report, Impulse NGO Network identified that there were 70,000 children working in coal mines in Jaintia Hills only and the all were below 16 years, working conditions were very hazardous there. Hasina Kharbhih, Founder Impulse NGO Network, said that its important to ban this practice because it was exploiting the children.

To read the full article in Live Mint, please click here.
The horrors of Rat Hole Mining by Chris Heller
20 Apr, 2015: : India is home to thousands of unregulated, unmonitored coal mines. Migrant workers risk their lives in these underground “rat hole mines,” chipping away coal with pick axes and hauling it away in baskets. More than 5 million metric tons of coal is mined by hand every year.

To read the full article in The Atlantic, please click here.
NGT retains ban on mining in Meghalaya By Amarjyoti Borah
31 Mar, 2015: The NGT refused to lift the interim ban on mining in Meghalaya in a hearing on March 25 2015. According to the Learned Counsel of the State Government Ranjan Mukherjee “ No order for fresh mining was passed and it will be decided only after the state mining plan is in place”.

To read the full article in Down to Earth, please click here.
NGT to decide the fate of coal mining in Meghalaya today By Yashaswani Sehrawat
25 Mar, 2015: According to Saurabh Sharma , advocate for the mining contractors “ The NGT bench had never stated that the ban was a permanent one. They wanted the coal-extraction to be regularized through a mining plan. The delay in the submission of the mining plan is the reason for the ban on coal extraction for now.

To read the full article in The Citizen, please click here.
Curse of the Black Gold: How Meghalaya depends on coal
02 Mar, 2015: Impulse NGO Network had filed a PIL against illegal mining in the state. According to their estimates there were 70,000 children employed in the coal mines. From the past eight years they have been demanding immediate shut down of mining activities. The working conditions were very hazardous, as children used to dig out the coal manually without any safety measures.

To read the full article in Hindustan Times, please click here.
NGT refuses to revoke ban on Meghalaya rat-hole mining.
29 Jan, 2015: The Tribunal’s special circuit bench , eastern zone comprising of Justice U.D. Salvi and expert member Ranjan Chatterjee also directed the State of Meghalaya to fasten up the process of formulating its scientific mining plan.

To read the full article in The Business Standard, please click here.
Struggle of children in the coal mines of Meghalaya
28 Jan, 2015: On the 17^th April, 2014 NGT imposed a carpet ban on coal mining in Meghalaya. At the heart of the illegal mining discourse in Meghalaya was the rampant use of child labourers in the rat- hole mining. The Impulse NGO network rescued around 1200 child miners and claims that population of child miners

To read the full article in Meghalaya Times, please click here.
Where is the Coal Child? By Ratnadip Choudhury
24 Jan, 2015: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposed a carpet ban on coal mining in Meghalaya following a petition by civil society groups , including the Dimasa Students Union of Assam , following the polluting of the Kopli river due to the acidic effluents flowing into the river. The illegal mining discourse in Meghalaya was the rampant use of child labourers in the rat – holes mines.

To read the full article in Tehelka.com, please click here.
Where is the Coal Child?
24 Jan, 2015: Hasina Kharbhih, Founder of Impulse NGO Network started to intervene about the child miners. People were unaware of child labor in coal mining when she started. She said that NGT had banned coal mining hence government should take some steps to rehabilitate those child miners. These children are not local rather trafficked from neighboring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh.

To read the full article in Tehelka.com, please click here.
Broken landscape
20 Jan, 2015: Broken landscape: confronting India’s water- energy choke point. In India’s resource- rich Meghalaya state, Demand for coal is transforming the environment and the people who depend on it. NGT recently banned all coal mining in the region effectively shutting down economy. Mine owners and workers staged protests, while people living in downstream are struggling to cope with dead rivers that once provided their livelihood, food and drinking water.

To read the full article in News security beat, please click here.
Rat hole coal mining ban in Meghalaya hits Bangladesh
13 Jan, 2015: Bangladesh officials in the first ever bilateral meeting of the deputy commissioners / district magistrates of Meghalaya (India) and Bangladesh held in Shillong confirmed the bad effect on ongoing ban by the NGT. Deputy Commissioners of Kurigram district ABM Azad said ‘we are badly suffering due to the ban on coal almost of our brick kilns depend on coal from India.’

To read the full article in NDTV, please click here.
NGT refuses to revoke Meghalaya rat-hole mining ban
2015: The NGT did not revoke its interim order banning rat hole mining in Meghalaya but allowed coal transportation. ‘The tribunal has refused the plea to lift its April 17 interim order banning coal mining in the state but allowed transportation of extracted coal.” Ranjan Mukerjee the legal counsel of Meghalaya government said.

To read the full past in Siliconindia.com, please click here.

NGT BAN IMPACT: ECONOMY DOWN, CRIME GRAPH UP
30 Dec, 2014: NGT Ban had led to closure of several private run schools and even churches in Jaintia hills. Agitation against the NGT ban claimed two lives in Mookhep in Jaintia hills when security personnel fired at an agitated crowd on September, 24. CM Mukul Sagma stated that central laws are in conflict with

To read the full article in The Shillong Times, please click here.
Unprecedented Coal Shutdown Tests a Authority Of India’s New Court
25 Nov, 2014: India’ NGT ordered the state of Meghalaya’s $650 million coal mining industry to shut down. Meghalaya’s unique “rat hole” box mines were too dangerous. Some 30,000 mines owners, 70,000 immigrants miners and 6000 coal trucks were forced to stop working in this heavily forested state in northeast India.

To read the full article in New security beat, please click here.
Indefinite strike in Meghalaya from Tuesday against NGT’S coal mining ban. By samundra gupta kashyap
22 Sep, 2014: Four months after the national green tribunal (NGT) had ordered a ban on ‘rat-hole’ coal mining in Meghalaya an organization called Movements for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Livelihood- Meghalaya (MIPRL) called for an indefinite strike demanding withdrawal of the NGT ban on coal mining.

To read the full article in The Indian Express, please click here.
NGT maintains ban on coal mining in Meghalaya
01 Aug, 2014: The observation was made at the Meghalaya’s High Court as the tribunals special circuit bench , eastern zone comprising chairperson Justice (retd) Swatanter Kumar and expert membe Ranjan Chatterjee conducted a hearing on issues relating to coal mining in the state.

To read the full article in The Business Standard, please click here.
NGT ban on rat-hole mining in Meghalaya to continue
11 Jun, 2014: The NGT refused to lift ban but allowed transportation of the already extracted coal. The NGT bench , chaired by Justice Swatanter Kumar had directed to setup a six member committee to prepare an inventory of the extracted coal and submit its report to the tribunal by June 16.

To read the full article in Down to Earth, please click here.
India’s National Green Tribunal: An Experiment in Environmental Justice
11 Jun, 2014: A local NGO that fights child labor in Meghalaya estimates that close to 100,000 children work in the mines, most of them trafficked from neighbouring countries. Impulse NGO Network has been campaigning against this issue since 2006. They have documented the widespread violation of child rights in these mines and reached out to various human rights and child protection groups at the state, national, and international levels.

To read the full article in Policy Innovation, please click here.
National green tribunal to review ban on coal mining in Meghalaya
08 Jun, 2014: Locals claimed that the ban will lead to the loss of 2 lakhs jobs. According to the latest figures by the Meghalaya government the state produces nearly 58 lakhs metric tons annually.

In 2012 15 miners drowned by accidentally pushing into the wall in stored of gallons of water. In 2012 200 miners lost their lives as reported by local reports. Further in 2013 December 5 miners lost their lives when cable attached to the coal bucket snapped

To read the full article in NDTV, please click here.
Rat hole in Meghalaya : whose coal is it anyway by Abhijit Deb
23 May, 2014: Meghalaya government passed a mining policy in the year 2012 however the same policy asserted that small and traditional system of mining by local people in their own land shall not be unnecessarily disturbed. Notably the NGT in its order observed that except coal mafias, neither the government nor the people were benefitting from such ‘illegal mining’ of coal.

To read the full article in Sustainability zero, please click here.
Meghalaya Government banned rat hole mining & coal transportation in the State
15 May, 2014: After the ban implemented by the NGT throughout the state of Meghalaya on rat- hole coal mining. The Director General of Police (DGP) of Meghalaya PJP Hanaman directed the Superintendents of Police and Deputy Commissioners to implement the order of NGT in letter the spirit. The ban was followed by the application filed by All Dimasa Student’s Union and Dima Hasao District Committee from Assam on 2nd April 2014.

To read the full article in jagranjosh, please click here.
India’s Treacherous coal mines in Meghalaya by Keith Schneider
15 May, 2014: On the 17th April, 2014, the tribunal issued an order to shut down mining in the Jaintia hills. “We are of the considered view that such illegal and unscientific method can never be allowed in the interest of maintaining ecological balance of the country and safety of the employees.” Justices said “It is also brought to the notice of this tribunal that by such illegal mining of coal neither the government nor the people of the country are benefitted. It is only the coal mafias who are getting benefited by the following this sort of illegal activities.

To read the full article in Circle of blue, please click here.
India - Rat Hole Minors - 23 min 28 sec
12 May, 2014: Hasina Kharbhih of Impulse NGO Network, a non-government organization that combats human trafficking throughout the north-east of India. She’s been told that children here are working in the mines and wants to find out more about Bikash’s family and his younger brother, Bishal. I still remember that day when I came in here and I was talking to the first kid and the kid was telling me, “I don’t like what I do, but I have no choice.” And those words keep ringing over the years.

To read the full article in The Journey Man, please click here.
Opposition grows on National Green Tribunal’s Rat Hole Mining Ban in Meghalaya
04 May, 2014: The tribunal is hearing two petitions against rat hole mining. One is by the students union and the other is by Impulse NGO Network.Students union is concerned about unscientific conditions of work which results into deaths of workers. But NGO is mainly concerned about the minors who are working there as labourers. The Green Tribunal heard the Public Interest litigation filed by Meghalaya based Impulse NGO Network on underage youths being employed in the mines.

To read the full article in Power Hub, please click here.
Opposition grows on NGT’s Rat Hole Mining ban in Meghalaya
03 May, 2014: The tribunal is hearing two petitions against rat hole mining. One is by the students union and the other is by Impulse NGO Network.Students Union is concerned about unscientific conditions of work which results into deaths of workers. But NGO is mainly concerned about the minors who are working there as laborers.

To read the full article in The Morung Express, please click here.
Opposition Grows on National Green Tribunal’s Rat Hole mining ban in Meghalaya
03 May, 2014: On April 17, the National Green Tribunal banned rat hole mining, a practice unique to Meghalaya saying neither the people nor the government benefit from it. The tribunal was hearing the matter based on a complaint brought by the All Dimasa Students’ Union (ADSU) and the Dima Hasao district committee.

To read the full article in The Economic Times, please click here.
Rat Hole Minors
15 Apr, 2014: Five years ago, after a number of detailed surveys, Impulse NGO Network estimated there were up to 70,000 children working in the mines of Meghalaya. Employing children under the age of 14 is illegal, but Hasina Kharbhih says the State Government has done very little to stamp it out without being pushed.

To read the full article in SBS Dateline, please click here.

The Child Miners of Meghalaya
07 Oct, 2013,: Impulse NGO Network, a local NGO fighting child labour in Meghalaya state, estimates there are around 70,000 children like Pemba who work in the mines, either digging for coal or loading thousands of trucks bound for the energy-hungry industrial sector across India and into neighbouring Bangladesh.

To read the full article in Aljazeera, please click here.
Children of Rat Holes
17 Jun, 2013,: In 2010, the nongovernmental organization Impulse NGO Network discovered hundreds of children — some as young as 9 years old — working in the coal mines. Three years after the problem was first exposed, it is still easy to find children working in dangerous conditions. The nongovernmental organization Impulse NGO Network interviewed and photographed hundreds of children working in the coal mines of the Indian state of Meghalaya.

To read the full article in ABC News, please click here.
Blighted lives of India’s child Coalminers
19 Apr, 2013,: This is human trafficking, there is a purchase happening,” Ms Kharbhih says. Forty per cent of 200 miners interviewed by Impulse NGO Network were under 14. Half had been involved in some sort of exchange for money.

“Some were lured, some were just brought and they cannot go back,” Ms Kharbhih says. “Some, their families took money for them to go, others, their family was in debt, so they had to go to repay that money.

To read the full article in Sydney Morning Herald, please click here.
Child Labor thrives, if not India’s ChildrenChild Labor thrives, if not India’s Children
03 Mar, 2013,: In 2010, Impulse NGO Network, a nongovernmental organization based in Shillong, Meghalaya’s capital, reported that it had found 200 children — some as young as 5 — working in 10 local mines. The group estimated that as many as 70,000 children worked in about 5,000 mines.

To read the full article in The Seattle Times, please click here.
Children Toil in India’s Mines, Despite Legal Ban
25 Feb, 2013,: KHLIEHRIAT, India — After descending 70 feet on a wobbly bamboo staircase into a dank pit, the teenage miners ducked into a black hole about two feet high and crawled 100 yards through mud before starting their day digging coal.

To read the full article in The New York Times, please click here.
Children work in Rat-Hole Coal Mines in India
24 Feb, 2013,: Shillong-based non-profit Impulse NGO Network says about 70,000 children are currently employed in Meghalaya’s mines, with several thousand more working at coal depots.“The mine owners find it cheaper to extract coal using these crude, unscientific methods and they find it cheaper to hire children. And the police take bribes to look the other way,” Impulse activist Rosanna Lyngdoh said.

To read the full article in Taipei Times, please click here.
Children Toil in India’s RatHole Coal Mines for Dh13 a day
24 Feb, 2013,: Impulse NGO Network, about 70,000 children are employed in Meghalaya’s mines, with several thousand more working at coal depots.”The coal mine owners find it cheaper to extract coal using these crude, unscientific methods and they find it cheaper to hire children. And the police take bribes to look the other way,”

To read the full article in The National, please click here.
The children who work in India’s rat-hole coal mines
22 Feb, 2013,: According to the Shillong-based non-profit, Impulse NGO Network, some 70,000 children are currently employed in Meghalaya’s mines, with several thousand more working at coal depots.

“The mine owners find it cheaper to extract coal using these crude, unscientific methods and they find it cheaper to hire children. And the police take bribes to look the other way,” Rosanna Lyngdoh, an Impulse NGO Network activist

To read the full article in Tengri news, please click here.
The children who work in India’s rat-hole coal mines
21 Feb, 2013: Thirteen-year-old Sanjay Chhetri has a recurring fear: that one day, the dark, dank mine where he works will cave in and bury him alive.

Like thousands of children in India’s remote northeast, Chhetri begins work in the middle of the night, ready to dig pits, squat through narrow tunnels and cut coal shards…

To read the full article on NDTV, please click here.
India’s"Rathole"Miners working Children
2013,: Rosanna Lyngdoh Impulse NGO Network said,”The state should reconsider situation, because every time the mouse hole in the mines mining operation means that the children will continue”.These mines are operated by private owners and Government have no control over it. That’s why child labor is very prevalent.

To read the full article in Haber Monitor, Yozgat, please click here.

Daniel Berehulak: Documenting Child Trafficking and Slavery
28 Dec, 2012: According to the human-rights organisation Impulse NGO Network, 70,000 children are currently working in the coal-rich mines of Meghalaya. Daniel documented the experience of children being trafficked from their home country of Nepal or Bangladesh to the coal.

To read the full article in In Focus, please click here.
Meghalaya’s Black Holes
15 Nov, 2012: Rosanna Lyngdoh, Director Impulse NGO Network a Shillong-based organisation that has been campaigning against Rat-Hole Mining, says, “Along with mining, come alcoholism, prostitution and drug addiction, even among children. In the last three years, the Jaintia Hills district has had the highest juvenile crime rate in Meghalaya.”

To read the full article in The Shutter Speed, please click here.
India: Hope Runs out for Meghalaya’s trapped coal miners
13 Jul, 2012: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team on Friday called off the operation to rescue 15 miners trapped in a flooded coal pit in Meghalaya since July 6, an official said.
The miners got trapped in a mine in South Garo Hills district last week on Thursday after they accidentally punctured the wall of an abandoned mine, filling their mine with gallons of water.

To read the full article in Goaty News UK, please click here.
Meghalaya: BraveHeart Fights Against Child Labour in Coal Mines
19 Jun, 2012: Hasina Kharbhih, a Braveheart who has forced the world to turn its attention to Meghalaya’s rat holes. Hasina and her team at Impulse NGO Network are fighting the coal mafia and saving the lives of millions of children who are being trafficked from Nepal, Assam and Bangladesh to work as bonded labourers in Jaintia Hills.

To read the full article in IBN LIVE, please click here.
Life as tough as coal
8 Mar, 2012: It’s estimated that half of India’s coal is mined in the Jaintia Hills of the economically depressed state of Meghalaya. To protect environmental degradation the Supreme Court banned commercial logging in Meghalaya in 1981. With this new law in place locals soon turned to digging on their property for coal…

The absence of state regulation and the lack of strict enforcement of labor laws has also encouraged local entrepreneurs to exploit the cheapest sources of labor: children. According to surveys conducted by NGO Impulse, tens of thousands of children under the age of 16 are believed to be working in the Jaintia Hills, many coming from Nepal and Bangladesh.

To read the full article in The National Post, please click here.
Life is tough as coal
08 Mar, 2012: According to a survey conducted by NGO impulse, 10,000 of children under the age of 16 are believed to be working in the Jaintia Hills, many coming from Nepal and Bangladesh. The impulse NGO network estimated that there are 70,000 children under the age of 16 working in the Jaintia hills. With such a larger industry , coal extraction in Meghalaya remains completely unregulated and mining is practiced in an unscientific manner that has been coined ‘RAT-HOLE MINING’

To read the full article in The National post, please click here.

Unregulated Coal Mining in Ladrymbai, India, presents Environmental Challenges
13 May, 2011: Impulse NGO Network estimates that 5,000 privately-owned coal mines in Jaintia Hills employed some 70,000 child miners. The Government of Meghalaya refuted this figure, claiming that the mines had only 222 minor workers. Despite the ever present dangers and hardships, children, migrants and locals flock to the mines hoping to strike it rich in India’s wild east.

To read the full article on NBC News, please click here.
In Northeast India Coal towns, many miners are children
15 May, 2011: The young miners descend on rickety ladders made of branches into the makeshift coal mines dotting the Jaintia Hills in northeast India, scrambling sideways into “rat hole” shafts so small that even kneeling becomes impossible. Lying horizontally, they hack away with picks and their bare hands: Human labor here is far cheaper than machines.

To read the full article on Los Angles Times, please click here.
Rat Hole Mines in Jaintia Hills: Meghalaya ND ITS CHILD LABOURS
04 Apr, 2011: A few fortunate kids would bury their heads inside books rather than inside dark inhuman rat-hole mines of Jaintia hills, thanks to the initiative of some journalists from India and France

To read the full article on Freedom 24×7 blogspot, please click here.
Network plea to save child miners - 20% kids from Nepal
26 Mar, 2011: A study on children engaged in rat-hole mining in coal mines of Jaintia Hills district has recommended establishing a network of cross-border partners in Nepal and Bangladesh so that child workers, who are trafficked to work in these mines, could safely be repatriated to their families.

The study, which has been done by Impulse, an NGO from Meghalaya that is working on child trafficking issues and HIV/AIDS, was investigating into the trafficking of children to work in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills.

To read the full article on The Telegraph, please click here.
Trafficked children in Meghalaya pits: Study
27 Mar, 2011: Children brought from Nepal and Bangladesh form part of the workforce in unscientific, ecology-threatening coal mines of Meghalaya, a study by a Shillong-based NGO revealed on Thursday.

To read the full article on Hindustan times, please click here.
India: Children trafficked to work in Meghalaya’s Mines
28 Mar, 2011: Children brought from Nepal and Bangladesh form part of the workforce in unscientific, ecology-threatening coal mines of Meghalaya, a study by a Shillong-based NGO revealed on Thursday. The study was conducted across 10 coal mines of Jaintia Hills district in August last year. Impulse, the NGO, had collaborated with the global Aide et Action in interviewing 200 labourers aged below 18 years and documenting their experience.

To read the full article on One World South Asia, please click here.

Coal Mining in Meghalaya: Child labourers in the ‘Rat-Holes’
14 Oct, 2010: Impulse NGO Network reported about 70,000 children was working as bonded labourers in the coalmines in the Jaintia hills district of Meghalaya. They were mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal. The Impulse NGO Network research also shows that according to the 2001 Census of India, there were 1, 22, 992 children below 18 years of age in the Jaintia Hills, out of which 90,368 children were in the age group 5-14. Also, 77.5% of the children in the Jaintia Hills have been categorized as Main Workers (i.e. working full-time) in the Census of India, 2001.

To read the full post in Two Circles.net, please click here.
India’s Child Coal Miners
09 Sep, 2010: Children as young as 7 mine coal under deplorable conditions in northeastern India, where local authority overrules national laws against such practices.
Under life-threatening conditions, an estimated 70,000 children work in the coal mines in the Jaintia Hills in northeast India, according to a children’s rights organization working to end the practice. The youngest of the miners are just 7 years old.

To read the full post in MAC, please click here.
Thousands of Children Employed in the Mines of India
11 Jun, 2010: Impulse NGO Network based in Shillong the capital of Meghalaya estimated 70000 child labours working in the rat hole mining. According to Hasina Kharbhih “there are even drugs that are circulated among children to keep working for long hours”.

To read the full post in Le Monde, please click here.
Rights Group Exposes Children Mining Scandal in Meghalaya
08 Jun, 2010: An HRN team collaborated with the Impulse NGO Network, a Meghalaya-based NGO, to study the child labor situation in the Jaintia Hills from May 31-June 2. The team visited three coal mines and interviewed 45 people, including child workers.Ms. HasinaKharbhih of the Impulse NGO Network alleged that the mine owners are also guilty of extrajudicial killings as they lock up children in closed mines as punishment and many died.

To read the full post in Sinlung Word Press, please click here.
70,000 child workers in the coal mines of Jaintia Hills: NGO
25 Mar, 2010: My first reaction to this news was ‘ is there a typo in that number?’ Child Trafficking is a huge problem all over India, and more so in the North Eastern states…

According to the 6th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, the tribal and native communities residing in Meghalaya have exclusive rights over their land which includes the right to operate mines on these lands. This situation means that thousands of privately owned mines are operating in the Jaintia Hills and although this is a legal use of the land, child labour and bondage labour is prevalent…

To read the full post on the Ek Sparsh blog, please click here.

Thousands of Bonded Child Miners in India
19 Dec, 2009: Study conducted by the Impulse NGO Network, an independent Human Rights Organization, has found that there are 70,000 children working as bonded laborers in private mines in Meghalaya, in India’s northeast. Children are reportedly trafficked from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal. The Rats holes are so small that any adult would find it difficult to enter them and extract coal. Hasina Kharbhih Impulse NGO Network

To read the full post in Deutsche welle please click here.
The rat hole coal mines in Meghalaya
18 Jun, 2009: In the Jaintia hills of Meghalaya black is beautiful. Coal is Meghalaya’s biggest source of revenue but all this coal is extracted from nothing more than tiny burrows known as rat hole mine. The government admits there is a problem and is trying to find a solution. “The rat -hole method is a primitive method that has been prevalent in these hills for many years and it is certainly hazardous “Paul Lyngdoh.

To read the full post in NDTV, please click here.
The Coal Mines of Meghalaya
08 Mar, 2009: In this blog post, on his Post-Nepal Diary, CEO of UK Charity, Philip Holmes writes about various situations that could be considered as having a negative impact on Nepalese children who have found their way, by one means or another, to India. He met up with Impulse NGO Network Founder Hasina Kharbhih, and got into a discussion on the subject, including what constitutes “a child”. Here is an excerpt:

From Hasina’s point of view the answer was simple; it is as per the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) which has been signed by all the countries in the world with the exception of the USA and Somalia (strange bedfellows) i.e. under 18 unless national law puts the age of majority at younger than this. That is fine in theory but in practice it is a different story altogether…

To read the full post on Post-Nepal Diary, please click here.