In election season, parties rediscover rat-hole miners
Times of India | 11 May 2024
Kolkata/Asansol: Rat-hole miners, long forgotten but back in public discourse after the Uttarakhand episode, number in thousands in the Asansol coal belt. They still enter abandoned mines to collect coal and eke out a living.
As Asansol goes to polls this Monday, all parties, though not willing to utter the terms like ‘rat-hole miners” or ‘coal thieves’ in their campaigns, are out on the road to woo them with a promise of a better life.
Due to the illegal nature of their work, it is not clear how many of these men are involved in the trade but as per activists, at least 50,000 depend on it. “Rampant privatization of coal mines is forcing even legal miners to go out of job, forcing many of them to resort to other means of livelihood. We have specific plans under my MP LAD fund and state-sponsored social security schemes to enhance their livelihood,” Trinamool candidate Shatrughan Sinha has been saying in public rallies.
BJP candidate SS Ahluwalia blamed the workers’ organizations — controlled by CITU and INTTUC — that forced the central govt to sell a certain percentage of Coal India’s stake to the private sector.
The heroic rescue of 41 workers from the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand brought the spotlight on these illegal miners last year. They are experts in creating narrow tunnels using rudimentary tools. Though once the skill to cut open tunnels on hard rocky surfaces was the only way to reach coal seams, with the rise in demand for coal and introduction of technologically advanced machines, the non-skilled labourers were out of business and were hired by the coal mafias.
In 2014, the NGT banned rat-hole mining but even now, thousands who have limited job opportunities crawl into these narrow pits to dig out coal despite knowing the imminent danger. The death of three villagers inside an open-cast mine in Raniganj and disappearance of 10 others caught national attention recently. A miner machine was engaged to cut and retrieve coal, right next to the shaft where the villagers had entered to illegally fetch residual coal blocks. When the coal layer above them collapsed, they got trapped. Two more people were killed in a similar incident at a mine in Bansra in Feb.
“Many more instances go unreported every year. Manipulation by the coal mafia and lure of money make these people continue to suffer in silence. Every party knows it but none do anything to change the system. There is a saying in Ranigunj ‘koyla jaar vote taar’. Hence, none dare to disturb this parallel economy,” said a member of a human rights organization.
During a visit to Asansol, TOI found several carrying coal on their bicycles and small vans with cops and every other agency looking the other way. TOI also spoke to multiple illegal coal miners, all of whom said they were aware of the danger but had no other source of livelihood. They get Rs 170 for 40kg of coal from the coal smugglers.
“I know it's unsafe, but it’s quick money,” said Raju Ruidas of Narayankuri village. He was injured in the Oct 2023 mine collapse and had lost his best friend but he still crawls into the mines.
A cycle van puller said most accidents go unreported and were covered up. “The families are asked to burn the bodies in the open and not report to cops,” he said.