The U.S. Department of Labor awarded $4.5 million in a cooperative agreement with Pact Inc. to combat child labor in mica-producing communities in Madagascar, as reported in a Feb. 16 news release.
Mica mining occurs in the Anôsy region, where the poverty rate is 96.7 percent. The COVID-19 pandemic and the drought have reportedly devastated the region’s agricultural harvests and increased the cost of staple foods.
“Amid these dire conditions, Malagasy families feel they have no choice but to send their children to work in and around the mines to buy food and fulfill basic needs,” the Department of Labor release said.
An estimated 10,000 children reportedly work in unsafe conditions in Madagascar’s informal mica industry. The mica-mining industry uses boys to work underground, extracting the mica ore, while girls are kept above ground hauling and processing the mica.
Many boys are reported to have suffocated to death from poor ventilation, while girls allegedly face pressure from mica collectors to engage in sex for money, the news release said. Many children reportedly develop respiratory illnesses.
The international nonprofit Pact Inc. will use its Madagascar Shines project to provide children with educational services and adults with livelihood services. The funding will increase government capacity to coordinate child protection measures. It intends to foster a sustainable mining industry that does not use child labor.
