India
ASM Population: 15,000,000
• Most reliable estimation, although partly protracking legacy data is per DELVE-19: 15,000,000 miners.
• Min/max: DELVE-19 mentions the 15M as “lowest figure” and that “figures are unreliable”. Therefore min:-0% / max +20%, i.e. 15M - 18M.
• Female miners: 10%-40%F + 60%M does not sum 100%! Possible difference of up to 30% are likely children. Therefore: Average = 25%F, plus 50% of remaining difference of 15% = 7.5% (half are girls). = roughly 1/3, i.e. 5,000,000?
• gold: using UBC-14 numbers of 915,000? as rough approximation.
Data sources for estimation
2019: 15,000,000
DELVE-19: Country Profile India 15,000,000
ASM Employment: Exact and recent figures are difficult to obtain. According to the outdated ILO estimate, which do not appear to include all forms of quarry workers, 1–1.1 million people directly are said to work in ASM. Another publication, which is also now over a decade old, reports that over 1.5 people directly and 3 million indirectly are estimated to work in India’s ASM sector. However, given the lack of data on seasonal workers and the migrant laborers who circulate from one location to another, the number of people mining directly may be twice as high, at an estimated 3 million. The stone crushing sector alone, which is predominantly informal, is estimated to provide direct employment to over 500,000 people. Another estimate calculates there are 12 million quarry workers alone in India. This is in addition to the 3 million small-scale miners that are estimated working other metals and minerals, bringing the possible total up to 15 million (taking the lowest figure). Yet many of these figures are unreliable.
Women: 10–40%, Men: 60% Formalization: 80% informal Materials mined by ASM • Barite, bauxite, chromite, coal, copper, diamonds, gold, gemstones, granite, iron ore, limestone, manganese, marble, mica, sandstones, and slate
2018: 12,000,000
IGF-18 and ARM-18 protracting IIED-13 data.
2014: 915,000
(UBC-14): Gold-only data produced by statistic modelling:
Expected ASM population: 915,000 Estimated ASM gold production: 1.2 t/a
2013: 12,000,000
(IIED-13): 12,000,000
2003: 500,000
(MMSD-03): Estimate for MMSD research country: 500,000
MMSD study by S.L.Chakravorty (http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G00724.pdf)
1999: 1,050,000
(ILO-99): Employment: 1,000,000 - 1,100,000
Number of mines: > 10,000
Illegal mines: 10% - 60%
Publications
| Reference | Year | Citation | Archived Copy | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DELVE-19 | 2019 | World Bank (2019): 2019 State of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector. World Bank, Washington D.C. | delve-19.pdf | delvedatabase.org/… |
| ARM-18 | 2018 | Barreto, M.L.,Schein, P., Hinton, J., Hruschka, F. (2018): The Impact of Small-Scale Mining Operations on Economies and Livelihoods in Low- to Middle-Income Countries. ARM, Envigado, PACT, Westcombe. | arm-18.pdf | responsiblemines.org/… |
| IGF-18 | 2018 | IGF (2018): Global Trends in Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM): A review of key numbers and issues. IIED/IISD, London, Winnipeg. | igf-18.pdf | iisd.org/… |
| GMA-18 | 2018 | UNEP (2018): Global Mercury Assessment 2018. Technical Background Report E-Annex. Chapter 3.2. UNEP, Geneva. | gma-18.pdf | wedocs.unep.org/… |
| UBC-14 | 2014 | Seccatore, J., Veiga, M., et al. (Univ. of British Columbia - UBC) (2014): An estimation of the artisanal small-scale production of gold in the world. Scitotenv. 496. | ubc-14.pdf | doi.org/… |
| IIED-13 | 2013 | Buxton, A. (2013): Responding to the challenge of artisanal and small-scale mining. How can knowledge networks help? IIED, London. | iied-13.pdf | pubs.iied.org/… |
| MMSD-03 | 2003 | Hentschel, T., Hruschka, F., Priester, M. (2003): Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining - Challenges and Opportunities. MMSD (IIED), London. | mmsd-03.pdf | pubs.iied.org/… |
| ILO-99 | 1999 | Jennings, N. (1999): Social and labour issues in small-scale mines. Report for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting on Social and Labour Issues in Small-scale Mines. ILO, Geneva. | ilo-99.pdf | ilo.org/… |
Further Materials
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x51obufrzg0&list=PL74C0ECEBA2E9DBA7
Articles:
Data section
| ASM DATA - Country Database Record | |
|---|---|
| Country Code | IND |
| Country | India |
| ASM Status | Existing (data assessed) |
| Country Count | 1 |
| Data year | 2013 |
| Publ. year | 2019 |
| ASM Miners | 15,000,000 |
| - gold | 900 ,000 |
| Data curation | as reported |
| Inc. DevMin | yes |
| - min. | 15,000,000 |
| - max. | 18,000,000 |
| - female | 5 ,000 ,000 |
| ASM Commodities | gemstones, diamonds, coal, gold, copper, chromite, manganese, iron ore, bauxite, granite, barite, mica, marble, limestone, sandstones, slate |