Apart from this, there are local welfare schemes as well as corporate social responsibility initiatives by companies—2% of a company’s annual profit—that help in the areas surrounding mining activity. In the absence of coal mining activity, not only will lakhs of people lose their jobs, but several welfare projects that benefit the residents in the vicinity will also be affected.
Consider the case of the Tetulmari coal mine in the Dhanbad district. After the mine was closed last year due to a land dispute, over 700 casual labourers have become jobless and 5,000 members of their families are struggling to make ends meet.
Ashok Thakur, who spearheaded the fight on behalf of Tetulmari mine workers, says that to survive, many mine workers have become labourers in nearby cities while some have no option but to steal coal from the abandoned mines and sell it in the illegal market.
Ganesh, who makes a living by working in the illegal mining ecosystem in Jharkhand, says that he manages to make Rs 200 to Rs 300 every day through the mines, but even this small amount is not a regular income. “Some days, we make Rs 1,000 as well, but on other days, we draw a blank,” he says.
“If mines close, we will have no option but to beg or starve to death, as illegal mining is our only source of livelihood,” rues the 22-year-old worker, unaware about the international consensus against the usage of coal as a fuel to bring down the carbon emissions. He finds it hard to believe that these mines could be shut in the coming years—majorly due to the money involved in the activity.
Thakur says that the workers who are on the payroll of coal companies do not get impacted because they still draw their salaries regularly, but daily labourers are adversely impacted. “Some of them have even stopped sending their children to school, because they do not earn enough money. They travel several kilometres in the city to work. What options are they left with?” he asks.
The story of the Dobari coal mine in Jharia, which falls in the same district and was closed down a few years ago, is similar. Small tea shops and kiosks that sold food for morning breakfast and lunch in the area immediately closed down because they did not get enough customers, say locals. Like Tetulmari, some labourers have turned to illegal mining here, too. “Now, coal companies treat residents as thieves, and the security force deployed to secure mines often beats youngsters. It broke down a temporary shelter which was used to run a school,” says Deepak Kumar Saw, who runs a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Nand Care Foundation to teach labourers’ children in the coal mine areas.
The coal mines in Jharia face a peculiar problem. Several mines have been burning for over 100 years, and the fire has spread underground to a large area. No one knows how exactly it started. Some say that the Britishers, while leaving India, put the mines on fire, while according to others, unscientific handling of mines and prolonged exposure of coal out in the open caused the fire to start. Besides Jharia, Raniganj also faces a similar problem, and all efforts to douse the fire have been unsuccessful.
Many villages in Jharia are situated over the burning mines. In many places, harmful smoke emits from the ground. Many houses have caved in, causing loss of life and property. “During the rainy season last year, half of my house caved in the ground. I lost my mother-in-law in that incident. Now, I live in half-a-portion of the house that still stands with my two daughters and wife,” a local resident tells Outlook Business, adding that he knows that it is life-threatening to live like this, but he has no alternative. It was scary to see the family living in a house where smoke still emerged from the broken portion, suggesting that the fire is raging below the house.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol district, NGOs working with coal miners say that more than half-a-dozen coal mines were closed in the district five years ago, and its impact can be seen in the people living in the area. “You will be surprised to know that hospitals had to cut down their staff and the number of doctors because company-employed mine workers migrated to other places and patient visits in hospitals reduced drastically,” says Rakesh Prakash Pandey, who is associated with NGO Child Rights and You that works for poor children.
Activists working in areas with abandoned mines say that the mine workers employed with the government coal companies are the ones that mainly migrate to other places because they get their salaries and benefits. Casual workers either head to other mines in the vicinity or look for alternatives of earning money. Very few of them want to leave the community and migrate permanently to cities.
When mines close down, labourers either head to other destinations or indulge in petty crime like stealing coal, says Pandey. “In fact, the problem of illegal mining has emerged from joblessness due to closure of several mines,” he adds.
How India ensures the transition of its workforce—from the fossil-fuel economy to one that runs on renewable sources—will decide whether it can meet its long-term goals around poverty eradication and development, says Suranjali Tandon, assistant professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. “The just transition objectives correspond closely to those of the sustainable development goals that include poverty elimination and reducing inequality, apart from climate action and affordable and clean energy,” she adds.
Performance Pressure
Prime Minister Modi was under immense pressure from the Western block to commit to stringent targets before the COP26 conference. Just before the climate talks, a study by Paris-based International Energy Agency suggested that for the world to meet its climate targets, India, the third largest polluter in the world, needed to ensure that its “CO2 emissions never return to 2019 levels at any point”.