"Palliris": Female Miners in BOLIVIA

Bolivian women extracting minerals in front yards of mines are typically called "palliris" and are usually widows of miners, abandoned women or single mothers. The word "Palliris" originates from the quechua verb form "pallai" that means "chose".

"Palliris" usually work outside the mine entrances 10-12 hours a day with rudimentary tools in a contaminated surrounding, breaking up rocks. They extract, sort and collect small amounts of minerals (mainly tin or complex ore containing zinc, lead and silver) left there from mine or processing plant tailings, which they sell to intermediaries or processing plants. Sometimes they increase the value of the minerals by concentrating the material using simple, gravimetric separation methods.

"Palliris" often work together with their youngest children. If they are lucky, they earn about US $ 30-40 month. Because of economic considerations and superstitions women are rarely allowed to work on a formal basis inside the mines, where they could earn considerably more money. The hard work of an underground miner, which often takes place at extremely high altitudes in adverse climatic conditions is traditionally performed by men. The work chosen by the "palliris" outside the gallery earns them on average much less than work inside the mine. Nevertheless, in recent years the number of women associated to mining cooperatives permitted to operate underground is increasing, despite the existing belief that women bring bad luck and cause the disappearance of the mineral veins.

Miners’ wives sometimes work as "palliris", but they do not get paid. Their work simply increases their husbands’ earning capacity.

"Palliris" often have to work in residual, acid drainage water from the mines or chemically contaminated sewage from the processing plants without any protection. They have no social or health security and low expectation of improvement in their living conditions. In the gold mines near La Paz, some women work in alluvial galleries down to depths of 20m, extracting metal-bearing gravel with picks and shovels. All gold-extraction work is difficult and painful, in particular due to the tropical climate and dangerous underground conditions. These "palliris" may spend several hours per day working in tailings saturated with heavy, metal-rich acidic drainage, cyanide residues and even mercury residuals with no protection. The life expectancy of these women rarely exceeds 40.

Very few women in the small-scale-mining sector are active members of cooperatives with full rights; some are ‘representatives’ (substitutes for members who work for an agreed salary); others are ‘volunteers’ who perform the same work but only receive a remuneration equivalent to 20–30 per cent of what they produce in their shift. At the bottom of the ladder are female traders and gravel scratchers, who perform precarious clandestine work alongside the "palliris".

Capacity building is high on the list of major demands for the "palliris". Women working as "palliris" do not know their rights as workers, and therefore continue to be the most oppressed and discriminated workers in the mining sector. The needs and wishes of women working as "palliris" generally reflect the needs of mining communities at large, albeit with a greater sense of urgency.

The world of women’s work in the mining sector in Bolivia is a world where women’s rights and health are far from guaranteed. While "palliris" have formed an association in Siglo XX, a mining region in northern Potosi with a loose organizational structure in Potosi, others are characterized by informal and autonomous labour. Leaders of "palliri" cooperatives are paid a small salary from the Federation of Mining Cooperatives, but their participation within the federation is limited. The "palliri" association is designed to bring women workers together. However, a serious lack of resources hampers any real possibility of using the organization as a platform for improving working conditions for the members.

The APEMIN-II * Program (co-financed by the Delegation of the EC) has identified the needs of "palliris" to improve organizational structures facilitating access to resources. The considered actions for 2008 will provide support in terms of leadership / organizational skills for women, who are underrepresented in mining cooperatives, and also in terms of financing investments in equipment (labour security), and infrastructure (processing plants). The organisation of "palliris" is still very weak and has great difficulty exerting any influence on the cooperatives’ main agenda.

Since 2005 the APEMIN-II Program has supported around 500 "palliris", associated to more than 20 cooperatives located in the municipalities of Llallagua, Atocha and Potosi (Department of Potosí) and in the surroundings of the municipalities of Oruro, Huanuni and Machacamarca (Department of Oruro). The support covers (a) the provision of equipment targeted to make daily work easier, safer and more efficient, (b) the installation of processing plants (equipment and training) for 3 "palliris" associations. And, as mentioned above, during 2008-2009 the program will support the "palliris" with major efforts in organizational and (micro-) enterprise development. Additionally, the program’s legal department maintains a close relationship with each of the "palliris" group representatives, accompanying and advising them during the process of legal establishment, converting loose and informal groups into formally recognized producer associations. While there are currently very few mining cooperatives representing or lobbying specifically the interests of the "palliris" and almost no significant NGOs or governmental institutions supporting them, the task to improve the working conditions can be performed by means of lobbying, interchange events and strategic alliances with NGO partners. The application of these tools remains a major challenge for APEMIN-II before the program’s closure in 2010.

*) APEMIN-II: European Commission Cooperation Program to support sustainable economic development in the impoverished mine areas in western Bolivia. Aim of the project is to reduce the migration of poor mine workers in the highlands of Bolivia to the coca acreages of the country. The socio-economic development will therefore be promoted in 16 municipalities of the departments of Oruro and Potosí to provide income sources for the mostly indigent residents as well as to improve the social conditions on a sustainable and environmentally sensible basis.