The Women in Mining Nigeria (WIMIN) has called for deliberate measures to check gender violence and child abuse in the mining sector.
They organisation also called for more participation of women in the sector, saying that their lack of access to land and finance had limited their participation to just six percent, which is too little.
The president of WIMIN, Engr. Janet Adeyemi, who spoke in Abuja yesterday during the organisation’s national summit, with the theme, ‘Safeguarding the Rights of Women and Children in the Solid Mineral Sector,’ said the Nigerian mining sector remains significantly male-dominated and this is posing serious challenges for women who wished to engage in the industry.
The women in mining also declared their commitment to ensure that the mining space in Nigeria is open and safe for all women, both professionals and artisans, who are pursuing a business career in mining.
She further stated that WIMIN will stop at nothing to achieve the eradication of gender-based violence in Nigeria mining sector.
She listed other obstacles to women in mining to include lack of training and education, lack of success of mining licences, limited representation, displacement and loss of livelihoods, and emotional trauma, among others.
In her opening speech, Adeyemi listed some of their activities to include: “Women in mining in Nigeria extended our advocacy to Bauchi State. We visited key actors in the solid minerals sector and organized a State Policy Dialogue, bringing together stakeholders to focus on strategic ways to end gender and child abuse in the sector.
“In the presence of female miners in Bauchi, all state actors and stakeholders in the solid minerals sector demonstrated their unwavering commitment to ending all forms of abuse and strengthening their relationship with female miners.
“We had organised the female miners and inaugurated a fully functional State Chapter of Women in Mining in Bauchi State, which will champion the realization of our goals. This was a remarkable success for us in Bauchi State.”
She noted that they had engaged the Kogi State ministry of women affairs, on the protection and enforcement of children’s rights to integral as their mandate.
She, however, explained that limited resources hinder their ability to effectively investigate cases of child labour and abuse in mining sites across the state. “At the state level, Women In Mining has engaged various stakeholders through advocacy and policy dialogues. Nevertheless, we intend to escalate the issues of women’s and children’s rights violations in Kogi State to the national level.
“We have already partnered with the National Human Rights Commission and have been integrated into the solid minerals sector of Nigeria since 2018 by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development.
“We will leverage these partnerships, both locally and internationally, to address the issues affecting women and children in the mining sector of Kogi State. I take this opportunity to appeal to state actors and all stakeholders in the sector to provide us with their unwavering support as we strive to end gender abuse, child labor, and molestation in the sector.”
On her part, the Programme manager, WIMIN, Deloraine Dennis, called for protection of women and children in the mining sector, saying the summit was geared towards creating more access to justice and the rights for women in mining in Nigeria
Dennis decried the trend of excluding women from decision-making processes and leadership positions in the mining sector, saying it was limiting their important role in the development of the sector and the nations’ economy as whole.
