International Women and Mining Conference

In early October (2004), over seventy women from nearly two dozen countries met in Visakhapatnam, India to discuss how mining activities have adversely affected their home communities, the ecosystems upon which their livelihoods depend, and the special problems they create for women. The gathering was called the International Women and Mining Conference; it was the third in a series of such conferences organized by the International Women and Mining Network, which is more commonly known by its Spanish acronym (RIMM).¹⁵

The conference covered a wide range of issues, with most addressing the different impacts mining has on women. Despite their different backgrounds, the conference participants additionally found that they shared many of the same problems. Mining companies, for example, typically enter into business agreements only with men, which further marginalizes women. Since women are normally excluded from such deals, they are forced to find other ways to participate in the cash-based economy created by the introduction of large mines. In most cases, women are forced deeper into poverty as traditional livelihoods are undermined or destroyed by the shift. Thus mining companies, the conference participants concluded, have a clear social responsibility to protect women and to take concrete steps to ensure their human rights are upheld. Given the considerable resources of most mining companies, they could play a significant role in enhancing economic development for women, which would improve rather than harm their rights as is currently often the case.

The conference also provided an international forum for “Christine”¹⁶ to present information on the impacts of gold mining in Kachin State, where she is originally from. Christine is an alumnus from the EarthRights School (ERS), and graduated in 2002. Christine was the only representative from Burma to attend the conference. The paper, which Christine presented at the conference, provided a general overview of large-scale gold mining concerns in Kachin State, but focused on the various impacts this industry has had upon women, especially the suffering it has caused them. The gendered impacts, which are distinct from the abuses that men face in Burma, fall into four main categories:

In Burma, women are primarily responsible for obtaining and for preparing food. Mines make this task vastly more difficult because valuable farmland is frequently seized without any compensation. Additionally, mines create “deadzones,” where nothing will grow due to intensity of the mining operations and the toxic air and water population. Finally, mining operations force a rapid shift from a largely subsistence-based economy to one based on cash. This shift is accompanied by inflation, which makes in increasingly difficult for families to purchase the basic goods they need to survive: cooking oil, clean water, fuel, medicine, etc. Together, these changes often force women into the sex industry since they have no other way to provide for themselves and their families.

Children represent the future. However, women involved in the mining industry often have to bring their children to sites where they are exposed to chemicals. Long-term exposure can result in a variety of chronic problems that will adversely affect their physical and mental development. Additionally, mining sites are very dangerous and children playing in and around them face additional risk of injury or death from accidents.

Increased physical and sexual violence against women are also closely associated with mining operations. First, women who work in mines often face physical violence at the hands of other miners and, especially, military personnel guarding the sites. Additionally, they are almost always paid less then men, even where they perform the same tasks. Second, a decrease in food security often produces an increase in levels of domestic violence at home. Third, the rapid in-migration of men to mining sites also leads to increased demand for sexual services. Rape as well as institutionalized forms of sexual violence (e.g. brothels) rise as a result.

Women, although they rarely perform the heavy labor associated with mining operations,  often face greater long-term health risks. Women commonly transport ore, wash and then treat it with chemicals, and collect water needed for drinking, washing, and cooking. As a result, they are exposed to more toxic chemicals and for longer periods of time. Such exposure threatens their physical wellbeing, their babies (via breast milk), and future children due to damage to their reproductive health.

The key points of Christine’s presentation on the gendered impacts of gold mining in Kachin State are summarized below.