Blood Mica 1

Blood Mica:
The Dark Realities behind India’s Ghost Mines

Shrey Kumar
UR19100
Batch 2019-21
Xavier School of Rural Management
Xavier University Bhubaneswar
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Table of Contents

Abstract 3
Mica Mines & Illegal Mica Mining 3
Mica Mafia 4
Problems with Mica Mining 4
Steps Being Taken for Betterment 5
Synthetic Mica 6
References 7
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Abstract
Mica is the collective name of a group of silicate minerals, widely used in cosmetics especially to
add sparkle and shimmer. Hence, it is also known as “nature’s glitter”. Other than beauty
products, this particular mineral is used in almost any product that has a shimmer or glow
effect such as in car paint and in plastics. Usually found as ‘mica’, ‘potassium aluminum silicate’
and ‘CI 77019’ on ingredients lists, it’s what gives toothpaste, an extra bright texture and body
lotion, a light glow.
The major problem with the use of natural mica is the serious problems of child labor and
hazardous working conditions prevalent in the informal mica mining industry. The issues in the
mining and extraction of mica, the occupational health issues of concerned parties, families
being forced to send their children to mines due to low incomes, non-regulation by government
and the high fatality rates are the major topics of concern in this report.

Mica Mines & Illegal Mica Mining

As the saying goes, “All that
glitters is not gold,”
similarly the dark side of
mica is the mining involved
behind it. India is one of
the largest producers of
mica with about 60% of the
high quality mica that goes
in the manufacture of
beauty products coming
from India, mostly from
states of Jharkhand, Bihar,
Rajasthan and Andhra
Pradesh. Of this large
quantity of mica mined in
India, roughly 70% of mica
produced comes from
illegal mines with no
governmental regulation or
limitations. Taking
Jharkhand as an example,
The Indian Bureau of Mines
lists the number underground mica mines at only 21, and just 244 leases, with the officially
recorded mica production at a mere 19,000 tonnes. Yet astonishingly, mica exports were
 Blood Mica 4

recorded at 1,40,310 tonnes in 2014-15, earning a revenue of about 341.60 crores. This huge
difference between the export and production records bring to light the major scale of illegal
mining and ghost mines in Jharkhand.

Mica Mafia
Mica was actually made illegal by the government of India in the 1980s in the cause of
preventing deforestation, but was not successful in actually closing down the mines or
redistributing workers to alternative industries, creating economic uncertainty among the
people involved in the mica mining industry. With no other alternative industries in these
backward regions where mica mining is prominent, many workers, both children and adults
have no luxury of choice and are bound to keep working in shabby, crumbling and dangerous
mines under the oppression of a new, informal organization, infamously known as the “mica
mafia.” Under the leadership of mica mafia, illegally mined mica from these poor regions is also
finding a market in foreign countries through a clandestine supply chain involving local people,
businessmen, politicians, multinational companies and authorities. According to a report by The
Guardian in July 2016, even cosmetics brands completely serious about cleaning up their mica
supply chains have had issues due to difficulty of tracing the real source of the mica. For
example, mica is first bought by intermediaries, which results in the mixing of both legal as well
as illegal mica which is then sold to the relevant processing companies.

Problems with Mica Mining

In the economically backward mica belt of India, complete villages gain their livelihood and
sustenance by participating in the mining of mica, which they gather from illegal mining in
forests and abandoned mines.
During an investigation in Jharkhand, it was found that there were children working in these
mines who were as young as five years old. Among them most of the children reported that
they didn’t have the luxury of going to school and had been working in these mines ever since
they could remember. Family mining is a common phenomenon, where the whole families from
the parents to the children are exploited by the mica mafia to work in dangerous environment
to earn their basic livelihood.
These mines are full of risks. Most of the illegal mines are no bigger than pits in which only
smaller children can squeeze in. A child’s underdeveloped stature and tiny hands also make
them appropriate for entering narrow shafts and sorting smaller mineral pieces. On the other
hand, the better quality ores, called ruby mica, is found deeper underground. In such cases,
older miners risk their lives descending without any appropriate harness down rickety ladders
into pits of about 100 feet depth in search of better quality silicate.
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Even though, most people involved in this work knows the dangers of such illegal mica mining,
but their economic backwardness don’t provide them with much of a choice. Although,
breathing and inhaling in the dust in mica mines can cause infections, disease and permanent
damage to the lungs, but according to the miners there are a lot worse risk that they worry
about. For example, sisters Surma, 11 and Lakmi, 14, were working in a mine pit when it started
to crumble. When they tried to get away, Lakmi was buried under a mountain of debris. By the
time any help arrived, Lakmi had died.
A 2016 investigation by Reuters concluded that not only the incidents of such deaths in mica
mines common and frequent, but a major part of the deaths had been covered up by local
officials, making the actual fatality number much higher than in records. According to the non-
governmental organization Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), whose founder Kailash Satyarthi
received the Nobel Peace Prize for this constant struggle against child labor, has been paying
attention to the mica mining situation for some time. As a result, each month BBA documents
about 10 to 20 fatalities due to the collapse of mica shafts, a conservative estimate based on
what is observed on the ground. According to Nagasayee Malathy, executive director of Indian
advocacy group Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF), there has not been any major
change even after the findings of the investigation were brought to light. She tells us that the
police never filled out any report when they came to take Lakmi’s body for examination, and
that no action was taken anyone who controls the mine. It was like Lakmi’s life meant nothing
and it just a part of business. An informant that does not want to be identified, says that mica
business has always been protected under a ‘culture of silence and fear.’ He describes about
how when a women died in a mica mine, the examining doctor assisted in covering it up by
mentioning the cause of death on her certificate as a ‘fall from the roof of a two story house.’

Steps Being Taken for Betterment

Merck, a German multinational and among the largest importers of Indian mica, is the only
company that currently claims to be purchasing mica only from legal mines. Corporations such
as Chanel, L’Oréal, H&M, Shiseido and Merck have joined hands to launch the Responsible Mica
Initiative, with the goal of ending child labor in the mica mines by 2022 and pledging to
purchase mica only from legal sources. But the harsh reality is that the supply chains related to
mica are simply not developed enough to be able to ensure that the children are not working,
let alone make any sort of claims about the safety procedures and the wages for adults.
Anyone under the age of 14 is prohibited by the Indian law from working, and definitely not in
dangerous jobs like unregulated mining. Consequently, child right campaigners hope to draw
attention to the occurring child deaths and highlight the risks related with the prevalent
practices in order to force government to act and implement the relevant laws and develop a
transparent mining license system in order to reduce the occupational hazards.
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Synthetic Mica
Synthetic Mica is a recent laboratory manufactured, biodegradable alternative to the natural
mica, developed by a British cosmetics company called Lush, which is renowned for its
handmade products and ethical industry practices. This company started focusing on
developing synthetic mica when they came to know that its supply chain might be dirty in 2014
and had increasing concerns about child labor. After years of struggle and research, the
company has been able to become completely natural mica-free with only synthetic mica being
used in their products. This successful transition shows that if the cosmetic companies and
serious about reducing the use of natural mica mined from illegal mines, then synthetic mica is
the way forward.
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References

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/05/229746/mica-in-makeup-mining-child-labor-india-
controversy
https://www.spiegel.de/international/tomorrow/a-1152334.html
https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/skincare-alphabet-what-is-mica
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-mica-children/blood-mica-deaths-of-child-workers-
in-indias-mica-ghost-mines-covered-up-to-keep-industry-alive-idUSKCN10D2NA
Child in Need Institute, Ranchi. Child Labour in Mica Mines of Koderma & Giridih District of
Jharkhand.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/08/india-to-legalise-mica-
mining-bid-tackle-endemic-child-labour-guardian-investigations

Topics to be Covered
1. What is Mica? Pavithra
2. Where is Mica used? Prerna
3. Types of mica Pavithra
4. Blood Mica: A case study Prerna
5. Government Actions Pavithra
6. Fenty Beauty using illegal Mica Pavithra
7. Lush Cosmetics taking Initiative Prerna
8. Conclusion Prerna