Mining In Rajasthan

A Study Of Patterns & Paradigms

Tarun Kanti BoseE-mail:tarunkantibose@gmail.com

Blog:www.tarunbose.blogspot.com

Published by

Curtain Raiser

ajasthan, India's largest state, is home to many of the

country's very rich as well as a large section of the abject

poor. Livelihoods range from industrial activity, trade and

commerce to agrarian activity which would include agriculture,

horticulture and animal husbandry. Exploitation of natural resources

like minerals is also a reasonably large-scale activity. While a lot has

been researched and written about conventional livelihoods in

Rajasthan and their impact on the populace; the activity of mining

minerals and ores, and the impact this is having on the fragile

ecosystems of the desert state, its social frameworks, and the tenuous

economic balance in the state's mining belts is less prolific.

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Nature has endowed Rajasthan with several rich mineral

deposits. Perusal of available records shows that sixty-four kinds of

metallic and non-metallic minerals, ores and deposits are exploited in

the state. The workforce that is employed in extracting and

processing these natural resources in the state’s mining industry (both

organised and unorganised) is second only to agriculture, which

accounts for the largest chunk in the state. A series of livelihood

crises precipitated and perpetrated by abject failure of agriculture on

the one hand, and degradation of pastoral land due to a variety of

reasons on the other, compounded further by recurring and perennial

drought over the past several years, has left the rural populace with

no option but to work the mines that litter the landscape. Over 3.1

million workers, predominantly adivasis and dalits, toil 12 to 13 hours

a day on an average, in working conditions that are described as

hazardous at best.

Given the largely unsustainable, unscientific, and unorganised

nature of these activities, these mine workers are also prone to a

number of occupational hazards including the onset of life-threatening

diseases and crippling physical injuries resulting from the lack of

adequate health-care measures and mine safety arrangements.

Denied access to basic medicare facilities and other statutory benefits

that organised labour normally takes for granted, mine workers here

must invest their sweat and blood for virtually zero returns, in fiercely

hot summers as well as freezing winters. As a consequence, the rich

get richer and the poor get poorer, with the coffers of the mine owners

get filled, and the mine working communities getting not only

progressively impoverished, but also suffering from reduced life spans.

Violations of labour laws and statutory safety measures abound

and are rampant in the mining areas in the state. Mines often operate

on outright illegal basis or on long-expired leases; dumping of mine

debris is often haphazard, leading to destruction of fragile ecosystems

where the waste products of one process do not constitute the raw

material for the next. Business practices are often questionable, with

mine workers getting paid much less than the minimum assured wage;

and work conditions are hazardous, as mentioned earlier. These are

but a few of the several glaring instances of irregularities and

objectionable practices in this economic activity that provides a

precarious livelihood to a large section of the labour population of the

state. So much so that it may be said that the mining industry in the

state is today deriving and garnering its profitability purely through

unsustainable exploitation of scarce natural resources and the over-

exploitation of its productive human resource.

To elaborate further on this, in an overwhelming majority of the

mines in the state, the mining methodology is characterised by

intensive and erratic operations, is without a scientific basis, and the

technology used is quite primitive. Costs are kept low mainly due to

above practices in tandem with a tradition of paying the labour class

much less than is rightful, making them work for longer hours, the

extraction of resources far exceeding lease limits, clandestine mining

and the running of fly-by-night operations, frequent non-payment of

cess/royalty etc.

To a large extent, this state of affairs is also aided by lax

enforcement of laid down laws and norms for mining by the state's

mining department, which lacks both the political will as well as the

required wherewithal to monitor the working of a couple of thousand

leases. All this has been adding to the oppressive working conditions

and shadow existence of a large number of people who are eking out

their livelihood through resort to seasonal mining activity in the state.

As mentioned earlier, the state is endowed with a wide range of

mineral resources that offers considerable potential for future, if

exploited properly. In its 'museum of minerals', as many as 64

metallic and non-metallic minerals are showcased. A wide spectrum of

non-metallic compounds like gypsum bentonite, marble, fuller's earth,

siliceous earth, white clay, silica-rich sands, limestone, yellow ochre,

selenite, jasper, lignite, asbestos, granite, sandstone, etc., account for

a major share of state's mineral resources, and are distributed

throughout its several regions. The state also has rich deposits of

metallic ores like tungsten, zinc and copper in some regions. In

addition, the state has some pockets where lignite coal is available in

plenty.

Apart from these endowments, the state has enormous

occurrence of stone used for building, like marble, granite, sandstone,

and limestone. Rajasthan is also a leading producer of soapstone,

gypsum, rock phosphate, calcite, wollastonite, emerald, jasper and

gem garnet.

Let us take a look here at the topography of the state, its natural

wealth and its characteristic features. Rajasthan has a total area of

3,42,239 square kilometres of land within its domain. Out of this,

three fifths of the land in the state is sandy desert. Forests and

woodland comprise a total of 60,506 square kilometres, while 15,429

lakh hectares is said to be under agriculture. Forest and land under

pasture is gradually shrinking in the state, due to population pressure

and unsustainable practices like those mentioned in mining activities.

Most mineral deposits in the state are concentrated all along the

Aravali range that runs through large parts of the state and mining

activity is widespread here. At present, official records mention that

there are 33,199 mines of varying sizes that occupy approximately 4

lakh hectares of land in the state. The state government earns direct

revenue of INR 271 crores, and an even larger sum as indirect revenue

from these mines every year.

Though mining in the state has vast potential, 95% of the

activity in this industry today is controlled by relatively small units in

the unorganised sector, which is primarily responsible for the

hazardous nature of the mining activity. Lack of scale economies and

the absence of vertical integration as well as backward and forward

linkages have belied both the creation of proper infrastructure as well

as the adoption of appropriate technologies and safety methodologies.

As a result, private contractors and mine owners have tended to

adopt shoddy and unscientific methods to operate their mines and

keep them running, and the inadequacies of the state monitoring

machinery has contributed to unethical practices and the rampant

destruction of the state's habitat, as well as its mineral wealth.

As per several independent estimates, the unorganized mining

sector in Rajasthan is said to employ more than 25 lakh workers, but

mine owners and contractors are loathe to admit this and would like to

obfuscate this fact, tending to conceal this statistic from all and

sundry, including the government. This is manifest in the perusal of

government records, which reflect a figure of a mere 6 lakh workforce

occupied with mining in the state. Concealment of the actual scale of

employment in this industry is seen as a deliberate attempt by mine

owners and contractors to bypass labour laws and evade other

restrictions.

This pervasive cover-up operation is so palpable that it is a

practice in the sector not to write real names of workers in the muster

records. The blatant use of a ‘hire and fire’ policy is also very

prevalent, which ensures that no worker can stake claim to permanent

appointment, which brings several entitlements along with it as per

labour laws of the country. Ignorance about wage records,

employment procedures, ESI, PF, leave and group insurance

entitlements and their rights under the Workmen’s Compensation Act,

etc., has made the position of millions of mine workers in the state

totally untenable. As a result, they have been rendered vulnerable to

ruthless exploitation at the hands of mine owners, which has further

been reinforced by the government’s lukewarm response to their

plight.

Indigenous People & Mining

ndigenous people, especially the adivasis and the dalits, have

traditionally conserved nature, acting as protectors of nature in

their self-assumed social role as ecosystem trustees. This they

have done through the ages, despite shortages and scarcities, which

bespeak their tolerance, love for nature, resilience and adherence to

traditional wisdom. These value-systems and qualities of the rural

poor in the state are today getting progressively eroded, due to

protracted periods of recurrent drought, and the failure of agriculture

to provide a decent and sustainable livelihood. This gradually

worsening situation in the rural hinterlands has perforce coerced

indigenous people like the adivasis and the dalits to opt for either

trans-migration or work in the mines in order to ensure their very

survival.

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Painful indeed has been this journey of the indigenous

population, whom the trajectory of development has forced to evolve

from being the dignified trustees of nature to lead an undignified life

as unorganised labour in the mines that have sprung up in their milieu;

often at odds with whatever they believed as inviolate in their natural

surroundings. Bhils, Gameti, Kharadi, Koted, Damor, Pargi, Meghwal,

Gujjar, Khatik, Regar, Kohli, Kahar, Balai, Bajara, Meena and other

castes/tribes living in the Aravalis constitute the majority of the work

force in the mines today, where unregulated mining is not only

destroying nature's fine equilibrium, but is also threatening the life,

culture and social milieu of the adivasis.

The Mines As Killing Fields

ccupationally, the mines and stone quarries of Rajasthan

embody some of the most primitive of practices, and are

highly exploitative in the nature of their operations. This

state of affairs has earned them the infamous sobriquet of being

“Killing Fields”, where the harvest being reaped by its human

workforce is often a harvest of disfigurement, disease, and premature

death.

O

Accidents are a frequent occurrence at the mines here, as most

of the work is done manually, with primitive and rudimentary tools like

heavy hammers and chisels. Often heavy slabs of stone fall on

workers, resulting in serious and crippling injuries. The unorganised

mine workers do not get any medical compensation for injuries

sustained at work. To the contrary, workers are often deprived of

wages if they are unable to report for work due to sickness or injury.

Besides being prone to grievous injuries due to lack of proper

safety measures, working under hazardous and insecure

circumstances in the numerous mine fields of Rajasthan is also the

cause behind the shortening of life-spans for millions of workers in this

sector. The number of fatal accidents, which have evidenced a sharp

increase, is alarming at best. The State’s Mineral Policy, implemented

in the year 1994, with its exclusive emphasis on exploitation of the

state's vast mineral wealth, sans any clauses that enforce safe and

sustainable mining, or ensure the well-being and equitable

employment of the workforce, has further reinforced the exploitative

framework of the sector.

Each year, an average of 200 workers has been dying due to

mine accidents and 300-odd people are getting grievously injured,

with several workers getting permanently disabled. And till date, the

compensatory regime has been dismal, with not even 1% of those

killed, disabled or injured getting any adequate compensation. Life is

cheap, going by the offers of paltry sums by mine owners that silence

the voices of poor and destitute dependents of those killed or injured

at work in the mines. In all cases that have been studied, it was

obvious that the mine owners themselves were to be blamed for

making the workers toil in the most primitive conditions of work.

Harsh words no doubt, but this scenario warrants the assertion that in

these mines, maximisation of profit is the only credo; lives and limbs of

the workers are of no value. Therefore, the labour which works these

mines, without regard for safety or dignity of labour, are often pushed

into the maw of death.

Mines here also resort to the illegal practice of employing

children for working in some hazardous operations. The local

administrative setup, the law & order machinery, and the police have

been apathetic to this practice, which has emboldened mine owners

and contractors to continue with this practice, without far of stringent

action against such gross violations by the government. While

deployment of child labour in the mines is common knowledge,

collusion between the government machinery and the

mine-owners/contractors have meant that not a single mine-owner or

contractor has so far been arrested.

The deaths and injuries caused by accidents go the same way,

with a colluding police and the mines & labour department of the state

maintaining silence, brushing the truth behind the accidents beneath

the proverbial carpet.

This is a measure of the all-encompassing greed that pervades

the sector on the one hand, and the government's apathy and

unconcern towards valuable lives on the other. With most of the

casualties resulting out of mine accidents in the state failing to find

even a centimetre's mention in the newspapers, whatever little is

reported is taken to be the sum total of such accidents.

But given the nature of mining operations in the state, where an

overwhelmingly large percentage of mining leases are held by

individual mine-owners and contractors, and the industry is

predominantly in the unorganised sector, where rules, norms and

standards are often flouted rather than honoured, this is in total

contradiction to the true state of affairs. Barring a few exceptions,

most of these mines do not even possess a ‘first aid box’; most mines

are patently unsafe, with imminent danger of accidents looming large

at every mine. But nobody is bothered about these catastrophes in

the offing, as human life is held to be cheap in the light of obscene

profits.

High rates of injury and the exploitative nature of their

employment [daily wages are a meagre INR 60/- for 12 hours of toil]

apropos also make the workers dependent on mine owners, who loan

them money for meeting their daily needs that they can scarce afford

on their earnings alone. This leads them into a debt trap, transforming

them into a kind of bonded-labour. Debts typically range from INR

10,000/- to INR 150,000/- for each family of workers. This

indebtedness has the insidious tendency to rob them of their basic

freedom -- they are bound to the debtor and not allowed to move or

work elsewhere until their debt is settled, which is more often than not

perpetual.

Death In The Air They Breathe

ushed into penury by circumstances arising out of landlessness

and/or unproductive marginal land holdings, the rural poor in

the mining belts of Rajasthan, who were mainly adivasis and

dalits, sought to find an alternate livelihood, and took to mining for

sheer survival. The unorganised mining sector in the state found a

ready labour base in them that could be exploited, and has

unscrupulously done so, for many years now.

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Apart from the questionable practices mentioned in the

foregoing chapters like exploitation of labour for low wages, lack of

any safety measures leading to injuries, disfigurement and death due

to accidents, and perpetration of indebtedness, the mines are a killing

field for yet another reason, which has manifested itself through

occupational diseases that rapidly decimate entire populations of

workers who with stone in the stone mines of the state.

Premature deaths of the labour force are the norm here in this

sector, with diseases like silicosis, asbestosis, bagassosis, and silico-

tuberculosis being rampant in the people who work in the mines,

sapping their life force. Interestingly, most doctors in the state are not

even aware of the occupational problems of these notifiable diseases.

This sort of apathy at all levels has led to rising levels of these

occupational diseases, that have a tendency to rapidly shorten life-

spans of the afflicted, and underline the increasingly hazardous nature

of the working conditions in Rajasthan's mines and stone quarries.

Radha Sharma, Chief Functionary of “Aparjita Sansthan”, who

has been working among mining communities, and has formed 4 Self

Help Groups (SHGs) among the women mine workers in Balesar,

Jodhpur, has this to say: “A large majority of workers here suffer from

silicosis, silico-tuberculosis and tuberculosis, and die a premature

death due these diseases. In villages of Jodhpur where there are

concentrations of sandstone quarries, young widows constitute a large

percentage of the population. Though the state government did in the

past enact legislation to protect and compensate sandstone mine

workers’ way back in 1955 (The Rajasthan Silicosis Rules, 1955), the

rules are observed more in the breach, with mine owners flouting the

law with impunity...”

Workers engaged in tunnelling, mining, quarrying or chiselling

are without exception exposed to fine silica dust, which pervades

everything. Exposure to high concentrations of silica over a longish

period of time results in Silicosis, one of the oldest known occupational

diseases to affect sand-blasters, rock cutters and stone miners.

Prolonged exposure to free crystalline silica dust (silicon dioxide)

results in chronic fibrosis of the lungs.

When crystalline silica dust is inhaled into the human respiratory

system, lung tissue reacts by developing fibrotic nodules. This

condition is called silicosis. If the nodules become too large, it results

in respiratory distress, and left untreated results in death. Usually

diagnosed by X-ray, silicosis is a disabling and irreversible disease.

Inhalation of crystalline silica particles can also lead to TB and

bronchitis.

Spread of the disease among worker populations is preventable

through the use of technology that avoids formation of silica-bearing

dust deployed in tandem with certain mechanisms to avoid the

inhalation of the dust.

The deleterious effects of silica have been known since the time

of Hippocrates, as early as 460 AD and even earlier to Egyptians. It

was Agricole who emphasised the seriousness of Silicosis as a killer

disease in 1556 AD. Since then it has been on the radar of medical

science, and a large body of literature exists which deals with

problems associated with Silicosis.

An extraordinarily high incidence of silicosis has been reported

amongst workers of sandstone quarries in northern Nigeria (Worrell et

al., 1975) where 30% of the patients sampled exhibited X-Ray

evidence of silicosis. Silica particles, 0.5 to 5 microns in diameter are

likely to accelerate the disease, as most of the coarser particles (of the

size 5 to 10 microns or above) are removed in the upper respiratory

tract itself.

US Public Health Service statements have described

concentrations of dust particles in the atmosphere as primary and

secondary thresholds. The primary threshold consists of 5x106

particles per cubic feet which are less than 10 microns in size.

Exposure to concentration below this level does not cause silicosis. The

secondary threshold consists of 100x106 particles of the same size per

cubic feet. Those exposed at or above this level will develop silicosis.

The small particles that are deposited in the alveoli of the lungs

are eaten away by cells called macrophages where they are acted

upon by lysosomal enzymes that liberate the dust and allow it to enter

the cell cytoplasm resulting in the death of the cell. Silica particles are

acted upon by protein and act as antigen and antibodies are produced

and unleashed.

The reaction of antigen and antibodies cause complex tissue

reactions resulting in the death of cells. This is why silicosis progresses

even after a person had stopped working in sandstone quarries.

Exposure to silica dust of approximately 40 to 48 hours a week and as

long as 8-10 months in a year makes mine workers vulnerable to the

complications produced by silica.

Mines sans Basic Requirements

ines and stone quarries of Rajasthan lack even very basic

rudimentary requirements and bare minimum arrangements

for monitoring the health of mine workers. Furthermore,

these mines are often devoid of basic human amenities as well. In the

vicinity of labour habitations clustered near the mine fields, one finds

substandard and semi-rotten vegetables, coarse flour (often

adulterated) and other victuals being sold at above ordinary prices to

the workers. Worker habitations are often haphazard shanty-towns,

tiny cubicles covered with tin-sheets on stone pillars, most of them just

about two-and-a half feet high (one has to crawl into it to gain access).

These are the only shelters available to the mining workforce come

sweltering summer or freezing cold.

M

Conventional mining safety gear like boots and helmets are

unheard of and people in these mines work barefoot, with bare hands.

In most open cast mines, workers are made to toil even in

temperatures as high as 45 to 47 degrees Celsius. Instead of using

shafts, these mines deploy cranes to lower workers 300 metres or

more below the ground level. Every time a mine is blasted, workers

have to huddle together in the open, taking shelter behind rocks.

Injuries are common, due to the unscientific and crude methods

adopted by the mine owners and contractors, as noted earlier.

Women Mine Workers

istorically, mining has been an enterprise characterised by

very patriarchal modes of operation. It has also been an

industry and sector that is most hostile towards women. The

globally prevalent myth that the very presence of women in mine pits

leads to collapse of the mines and death of the miners itself resonates

with the hostility towards women inherent in the psyche of the mining

sector in general.

H

The mining industry in Rajasthan rarely employ women in any of

the formal/organised, public or private sector mines, as mining is

considered a highly male dominated activity, and they are prohibited

from entering the mines. Women are considered unfit for the hard

labour of working in the mines and only men are considered eligible

for employment. Most of the jobs taken up by women in this sector

relate to either minor administrative work or menial lower rung

activities like sweeping and cleaning, or being attendants in the mining

offices.

Literacy levels of women among adivasis and dalits in Rajasthan

are abysmally low, at a bare 3.46 %. Such low literacy levels are also

an indicator of the abject poverty levels of these communities. This in

turn shows their vulnerability to remain in exploitative forms of labour

like mining in the unorganized sector in the state. It is also reflective

of the lack of opportunity and the inaccessibility of any kind of skilled

labour for them, in the absence of any worthwhile educational

opportunities.

The age-wise distribution of women mine-workers in the state is

an interesting indicator of the extent of women's exploitation in

mining. In the age group of 5-14, women form 40% of the workforce,

in the 15-19 years age-group, they form 27% and thereafter, there is a

corresponding decrease in their representation as the age of women

increases. While this is not to say that exploitation of male children is

desirable, the fact that girl-child labour is employed on a large scale in

mining is a ground for serious concern.

In the small private or unorganised mining sector, where

majority of women workers are employed, there are no work-safety

measures worth mentioning, and the women are susceptible to serious

health hazards which also affect their reproductive health, and more

often than not, they are also exposed to sexual exploitation. Women

of migrant communities who live near and around the mine fields of

illegal and unorganised sector mines often lead a precarious life

scavenging in the region. They live in fear, facing constant

harassment from mine owners & contractors, the police and small-time

politicians, for eking out this meagre form of livelihood. Besides, as

scavengers, they work in totally unprotected work milieus.

It is this inexorable shift from traditional economies, where

women had a relatively better control over their bodies and natural

resources in their traditional form of livelihood, whether agriculture or

collection of forest produce; to a life in mining, where they are pitted

against prohibitory labour practices, vagaries of the markets, and lack

of any viable alternatives, that brings about a drastic change in their

livelihoods and social life.

Women workers are employed as head-load carrying porters,

and in stone breaking, cleaning, and other forms of daily-wage labour

where they are entirely at the mercy of contractors, and have

absolutely no work-safety or security. If there are accidents like mine

collapse, where the women are killed or disabled, these are most often

hushed up by the families themselves, for fear of police action or

facing the company's wrath.

Women are required to work long hours even in advanced stages

of pregnancy, have no leave entitlement or crèche facilities, and are

always under threat of being thrown out. In the stone crushers, most

women have contacted and suffer from tuberculosis (and so are their

infants who are brought to the work place and left around to fend for

themselves in the quarrying sites while their mothers are working).

Even this work is but seasonal for them.

Wages of women workers are almost always less than those for

men. Women do not get even a weekly off, leave alone a paid holiday.

Even pregnancy or childbirth is not considered. No work equipment is

provided to them, and there are no toilets or rest shelters or facilities.

The women are exposed to the exploitation, physical and sexual, of

the mine-owners, contractors and other men, having to walk back

several kilometres to return to their villages and are vulnerable to

assault on the way.

Women workers in the mines, like all other workers are also

susceptible to and suffer from several occupational illnesses right from

respiratory problems, silicosis, tuberculosis, leukaemia, and arthritis.

Specific to them, they also are prone to maladies that lead to

reproductive health problems.

Women workers in the mines have to either leave their children

behind at their homes unattended, or if at all they do manage to take

the children with them to the workplace, they have to expose them to

high levels of dust and noise pollution, not to mention the danger they

are susceptible to accidents, due to blasting or of falling into mine pits

while playing, etc.

Mine owners do not provide any facilities for the children of their

work force like crèches or attendants to look after them except at

times of inspection when officials from the labour department visit

them. Such inspections also tend to be a mere eyewash as the

officials are often bought over through bribes and rarely if at all report

on the poor working conditions in these mines, and neither do they

take any punitive action.

Most of the adivasi and dalit women working in the mines are

seasonal workers, their prime occupation being that of agricultural

labourers. This is because most of the land available to them has been

lost to mining and in this current time and age when the terms of

trade is going against farm labour, it is difficult for them to eke out a

sustainable livelihood from agriculture or from the forests. Neither is

the work in the mines regular for the women, nor therefore, keeps

them shifting between occupations. This gives the mine owners ample

opportunity not to provide minimum wages or employ them as

permanent labour in the mines, as they can be blamed for irregularity

of attendance.

Almost a good quarter of the women work force comes from

widows of mine workers who have died of silicosis, tuberculosis and

other respiratory diseases.

Some of the reasons cited by these women for their working in

mines are said to be poverty, death of the earning member,

debilitating illness of the earning member, desertion by the earning

member, and non-availability of other sources of employment. For

these reasons they get caught in a vicious circle, doomed to a

shattered life coming to terms with widowhood, sexual exploitation

and rape, molestation, destitution, exhaustion and silence.

Besides economic exploitation, their physical and sexual

exploitation by the contractors/mine owners goes unvoiced and

unsaid, for fear of their being thrown out of job that fetches them their

daily bread. And even if they do dare to disclose these incidents and

report to the law and order machinery, they often do not get justice

due to collusion between the local police, and the powerful lobby of

the mine owners/contractors.

Women in the mines are engaged in work like removing debris,

breaking pebbles and loading them into tractors. They also assist men

workers at the work site by taking their tools to the blacksmith for

mending, supplying drinking water and tea, and also for loading stone

chips onto tractors-trailers. On an average 2 to 3 women work in each

mine. And almost all of these women have contacted and are suffering

from occupational diseases related to stone mining, leading to an

increase in weakness, anaemia, abortions, stillbirth and death.

Unfortunately their work and toil is neither recognized by the state nor

by their own families.

Child Labour

he presence of the child labourer in these mines is an even

worse travesty of justice, and a very serious social hazard.

Children form a segment of cheap labour for the unorganized

mining sector In Rajasthan. In activities like quarrying, stone crushing

units, marble and masonry stone mining, transporting, head-loading,

stone breaking, and in some processing industries involved in the

manufacture of marble products, slate industry, etc., children are

taken up as labour to work in certain hazardous areas of operation.

T

More often than not, these children tend to get into the mine

labour workforce market to supplement the low incomes of their

families, or to pay up the debts of the families, or even as bonded

labourers. As they are not shown as official workers in the mines

employing them, the wages they receive are also entirely dependent

on the scrupulousness or unscrupulousness of their supervisors and

contractors who have been 'kind' enough to hire them.

While under 'training', these children receive no wages, and the

period and tenure of their training is also left to the vagaries of the

supervisor, the contractor and the mine owner. In reality, studies have

shown that child labourers work faster and contribute to better outputs

and productivity than many of their adult counterparts, but these

children are either paid no wages, or at best are paid inhumanly low

wages. They are often physically, mentally and sometimes even

sexually abused, and in the mine fields, where labour laws are lax, the

government too turns a blind eye to their plight.

The Insidious Debt Trap

he Rajasthan Mineral Policy, which was formulated and

implemented in 1994 and then subsequently amended and

reworked in 2005, is now beginning to have its impact at the

level of the mine and the mine workers. It has already contributed to

the augmentation of the oppressive work conditions of a large number

of people who are dependent on seasonal or permanent employment

as wage labour in mining to maintain only bare subsistence levels. This

perpetration of a scenario from which the worker has no escape

continues to persist, while the mining sector continues to thrive and

make profits as high as a 300 % return on investment. How is this

done? How is the mining sector managing to keep the cost of labour

at abysmal levels while it earns a surplus value of more than 300

percent?

T

Quarry workers and mine labour is encouraged to get into a high

level of indebtedness by mine owners and contractors, as a strategy

for ensuring cheap labour. This is done through the practice of making

advances available. The worker taking such an advance from the

contractors and/or the leaseholder is held beholden to them. Since no

written records are maintained at the time of the transaction, the

debtor is often forced to work at lower wages. The loan advanced

once never seems to get repaid. It also gets added on to fresh

advances requested by a worker who again borrows for some

conspicuous consumption, or for meting out a major life saving health

expenditure.

It is a fact of the matter that the contractor/mine-owner assesses

the worker like one does a draught animal, weighing his potential to

work in the quarries and his ability to sustain production at a certain

profitable level for a given time, even when calculating the amount of

the initial loan to be advanced to the labourer in question.

Consequently, younger workers are advanced larger amounts of

money, as the mine owner is assured that he will work for his entire

life-span (which albeit gets cut short by silicosis and the like) with him

in order to repay the debt. And workers generally have no intention to

repay the loans as it is fallaciously thought that if the loan is repaid,

they may be asked to leave the job soon after. This seems to have

perpetrated a vicious circle, out of which there is no escape. Pervasive

networking among the mine owners and contractors ensures that if a

worker leaves one job and takes up another at a different mine, the

debt also follows him, as it gets transferred to his new employer.

The operations of these mines are so structured that workers

prefer to work on piece-rates. Usually, for every one worker who

works on piece-rate there are two or more workers employed under

him who work on daily-wage. These daily wage earners demands some

advance from the piece-rate worker before they start working with

him. This advance is then paid by the mine-owner or contractor on the

recommendation of the piece-rate worker, and this amount is added to

the total advance of the piece rate worker, and he is liable for

repayment of the same by his daily-wage workers. Consequently, while

resulting higher production yields higher profit to the mine owner, it

leads to higher indebtedness on the part of the piece-rate worker.

Mine Workers' Habitations

iminishing opportunities for economic activities in the rural

regions of the state is the primary factor behind the motive

for migration of the rural poor into semi-urban and peri-urban

areas. As urban agglomerations swell, and opportunities for urban

labour also pale into insignificance, the migrating poor from rural

regions of the surrounding districts find no option but to move into

mining areas and come into the market for workers in the quarries

that abound in this region.

D

The migrants end up living in rented shanty towns and shacks

close to the quarry sites. These shelters are generally owned by the

leaseholders, to whom the migrants have to pay rent. As this process

goes on and sites get exploited to their maximum potential, worked

out quarry sites have turned into a new form of vicious slums, having

more than three to four hundred habitations, sorely lacking in

amenities.

This increased inflow of people into the mining settlements

stresses out the already over fragile capacity of these habitats to meet

even bare minimum standards in cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation,

not to mention clean potable water and minimum nutrition.

City municipalities spurn these settlements, as they do not come

under their purview, and even where they do, there is practically no

provision for making rudimentary accessible basic social service

delivery mechanisms like health and education facilities.

Moreover, it is clearly evident that even the primary motive of

this movement i.e., livelihood stability, is also only partially met.

Added to this, the new drudgeries that these migrant mine working

communities have to face are those typical of sprawling urban slums.

Crime, delinquency, substance abuse, stress, and heightened

family/domestic violence etc., characterize the daily life in these

settlements.

Increasing consumerism and the negative impact of mass media

has also contributed in no small measure to unrealistic aspirations and

skewed perceptions of personal needs and growth, leading to

increasing lawlessness. In this forlorn milieu, it goes without

gainsaying that it is the women and children who face the brunt of it...

Inside the Mining Belt of Rajasthan

ajasthan’s mineral economy is dependent primarily on minor

minerals. The state government makes regulatory law

regarding the grant of concessions (leases, etc.) for mining

these minor minerals. The mining of significant revenue earning major

minerals like base-metals is kept under public sector control.

RMarble is the highest revenue-earning mineral of Rajasthan

followed by limestone and sandstone. For our present discussion we

shall restrict ourselves to a brief description of the nature of minor

mineral mining in some specific areas of Rajasthan.

Among the areas visited were parts of Rajsamand and Udaipur

districts in South Rajasthan, parts of Jodhpur district in Western

Rajasthan, Makrana in Nagaur district and the area near Sariska

sanctuary in the Alwar district of North Rajasthan.

In the following pages, some relevant details from the areas

mentioned above are provided.

Mining Industry in Rajasthan: Some Glimpses

Over 3600 Marble Mining Leases, Production in 2000-2001 was 4.28 Million Tons

About 1100 Marble Processing Units and 50 Automatic Tiling

Plants with Marble Slab Processing Capacity of 1,000 Million

Square Feet Per Annum & Marble Tiling Capacity of 300 Million

Square Feet Per Annum

About 530 Granite Mining Leases with Production of 50,000

Tons in 1999-2000

Granite Slab Processing Capacity of 15 Million Square Feet Per

Annum & Granite Tiling Capacity of 50 Million Square Feet Per

Annum

Immense Deposits of Sandstone Accounting for Production of

8.37 Million Tons in 1999- 2000 from over 1700 Mining Leases

Enormous Flaky Limestone (Kota Stone) Deposits with

Estimated Production of 1.62 Million Tons in 1999-2000

Vast Potential Slate Deposits Accounting for Production of

12,000 Tons in 1999-2000

Mining Industry in Rajasthan Generates Employment for some

3.1 Million People

Mining Marble In South Rajasthan

istricts of South Rajasthan like Udaipur, Rajsamand,

Dungarpur and Banswara are mined extensively for marble,

serpentine, masonry stone, soapstone and limestone, among

the minor minerals prevalent in the region. Private-owned mining of

these minerals occurs primarily under small leasehold areas, though it

is quite possible for a single owner to hold several contiguous leases.

DAlongside the mining belt, a large sprawl of numerous limestone

kilns, and a whole multitude of small stone processing units can be

found, where the mined stones are cut, polished and stacked for

further transport and for selling. At places like Kelwa in Rajsamand

district, the marble mining belt continues on and on for several

kilometres, where every inch of land is being mined. Where the

deposits are available on the outcrops of Aravalis, these look hacked,

sliced-up and stripped bare, and in places literally razed to the ground

depending upon the age and intensity of mining. The thread-tiny roads

here experience a heavy traffic load of trucks, carts, jeeps, tractors

and trailers, etc., carrying away blocks and chunks of marble. In

between the stretches of mining, there are some village settlements.

During the month of October, the land here looked parched and

caked with a crust of white marble dust. We found that the land for

miles around was being used as a convenient dumping-ground for the

waste products of the marble mining and processing endeavour, with

debris generated daily from the mines and the processing units spilled

hither and thither.

Near the soapstone mines of Kemti and Kalora in the Udaipur

district, the air one found was laden with fine stone dust clogging one's

nostrils. Two mining leases here are privately owned, each spreading

over a distance of four to seven kilometres, a couple of hundred

metres deep at places, filled with water from the last rains. These

mines are semi mechanized. While most of the larger mines have

some machines, the bulk of the work in these mines is still done by

manual labour.

Profitability of stone mining in the region is ensured to a large

extent by remaining in the unorganised sector, which facilitates the

violation of existing laws as an accepted practice rather than as an

exception. Thus mining or quarry leases will have innumerable

irregularities in several areas, in ownership, in the haphazard manner

of working the mines geared towards maximum daily output, rampant

dumping of wastes, encroachment on land other than what is specified

by the lease, hazardous work conditions and extremely low and erratic

wages, not following safety guidelines, non payment of cess/royalty,

not keeping legal records of the number of workers employed, etc.

The burgeoning domestic demand for building as well as

decorative stones, coupled with the large number of small mine

owners always competing to cut overheads and extract maximum

profit till the boom lasts, has created a nightmare-like situation in

Rajasthan. The almost non-existent forest cover, dwindling

productivity of land in an already arid area and large-scale and rapid

degradation of land due to mining and other related unsustainable

activities have left very few available livelihood options for the local

population.

Mining as an activity not only encroaches into the natural

resource base of the local communities but also introduces avoidable

external elements in the system. This has artificially induced in many

places a growth of urbanization, influx of outsiders and the

introduction of a cash economy with a resulting hike in the prices of

daily commodities. Stagflation (inflation in a stagnant economy) is

more the norm here. The growing need for wage earning leads to

increased out-migration. High dependence on activities such as mining

has cut enormously into the bargaining power of people creating some

of the ugliest exploitative situations.

In some of the mines in Kelwa, the majority of the workers are

tribals from the neighbouring tehsils. Living on open mine sites in

makeshift shelters constructed out of mine debris, many of them are in

debt, and extremely ill paid. Water and fuel wood are scarce. Daily

necessities have to be procured at high prices. Some live on the mine

site all year round, going back to their villages every new moon day.

The frequency decreases with the distance from the mines, while

people from nearby areas often go back to sow the kharif crop.

What is clear is that there is no dearth of people of work in the

mines. This generally creates a situation that is favourable from the

point of view of the mine owner. The system of giving loans and the

subsequent indebtedness of labour also ensures that a particular

group of people continue to supply their labour to the mine at low cost.

The irony of the situation is that the Rajasthan State Government

justifies the expansion of mining by touting its employment generation

potential when there is no legal documentary evidence defining the

status of the several thousand people working in the mines.

Makrana's Pits of Death

akrana, a small town in Rajasthan, is best known for the

pristine white marble that went into the construction of that

great monument of love, the Taj Mahal in Agra, and the

Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. Makrana once became the marble capital

of the world propelled by the fame of the Taj Mahal. But now, it has

become a veritable death trap for marble mine workers, as greedy

marble traders mine out the town and its environs intensively and

haphazardly, pushing environmental and ecological concerns out of

consideration.

M

Marble has become Makrana's death sentence. Given that it

produces the best marble available in Rajasthan, rampant illegal

mining has polluted its soil, air and water. According to a survey done

by the Geological Survey of India, increase in the spread of mining

area, mushrooming waste dumps and built up land during 1967-1998

is at the expense of agricultural land, open lands, ponds and pasture

lands. It has set in a vicious cycle of death: people uprooted by the

growing infertility of the soil have to go to work in the mines for

survival, and the mines exploit them by flouting almost all mining

regulations.

As far as the occupational health hazards are concerned,

incidences of bronchitis, asthma, cough, chest pain and joint pain are

widely reported and prevalent among the population at epidemic

proportions. Noise pollution due to drilling and other mining

operations have caused deafness in numerous cases. Hospital

authorities point out that most of the cases here are of mine accidents,

with accident ratios being 30 to 40 minor, and four to five major cases

every month, and at least two to three mortalities every year. There

are no safety measures for workers, even a simple helmet and mask to

reduce intake of foreign bodies into the respiratory tract are ignored

by those who run the mines.

The Mines Act is often completely ignored here, which is evident

from the high incidence of accidents and deaths. There is no safe and

secure way to get into the 300 to 350 feet deep pits of the mines

except using ladder and rope. Labourers slide over the rope-carrying

compressor on one shoulder and hold on to the rope by the other

hand. Quite often the loose bonded rocks above the mines slide down

and the debris (solid and small pieces of rocks) fall or collapse causing

injury and/or sometimes death of the mine workers.

No trained and licensed workers are employed for blasting;

instead labourer themselves fix the explosives in the drilled pit. Mine

workers thus have to come out of 300 plus feet deep mine pits within

five minutes. Missing even seconds in this process can cost them their

life. During the rainy season, mine collapses tend to increase. The

ropes become slippery as fine marble dust stick to them, causing

accidents. 50-60 deaths occur every year here. Mine owners usually

settle compensation through middlemen by giving few thousands

rupees to surviving family members and get done with it.

52 mines collapsed in 2005-06. The main reason cited was that

marble is often mined along an incline but the pits tend to become

wider towards the bottom. Lease-holders of mines are required to keep

`safety pillars' between the various pits so that the top does not

collapse. Unfortunately, this requirement is often not complied with.

What makes matters worse is the fact that none of the workers

wear even a helmet, even though dynamite is used to blast through

rocks. They do not want to wear helmets because of the heat; but it is

the responsibility of the employer to ensure that workers take

adequate precautions, whether they wish to do so or not. Also, no

warnings are issued at the time of blasting so that workers may be

moved away from the site of the explosion.

Rajasthan State Mine Workers Union, a federation of small

unions across the State, filed a PIL (public interest litigation) about the

violation of norms in the quarries. As a result of this intervention, 35

mining licenses were subsequently cancelled. Each mine owner now

has to put up a notice board detailing the name of the leaseholder,

and the exact size and location of the mine. At least, workers can now

know whom they work for. Safety-kits are also mandatory, and are

provided to workers. Metal ladders are used in place of ropes to

descend into the pits.

According to the Mines Act of 1952, workers are entitled to the

provision of drinking water and first aid at the site, free health check-

ups, registers of employment, resting sheds, a weekly holiday and so

on. But none of these norms are followed. Unfortunately, most

workers are illiterate, debt-ridden and tend not to mobilise easily. The

union has just a little more than 2,000 members, though there are at

least 30,000 workers here. In Makrana, the Marble Mazdoor Union was

formed but recently.

Rule 9 of the Rajasthan Silicosis Rules (1955) requires employers

to get workers medically examined before hiring them, followed by a

check-up every five years, to check for the onset of silicosis.

Rule 10 requires that a post-mortem be performed on a worker

who dies of silicosis, so that the family of the deceased may claim

compensation. None of these rules are followed either, and as a

result, the incidence of silicosis is found to be as high as 40-50 per

cent among sandstone workers.

The authorities' unwillingness to acknowledge the problem is the

worst hurdle. Although a State-level Pneumoconiosis Board was

constituted in 1976 to check the incidence and severity of silicosis

cases, and to facilitate compensation claims of victims, the three-

member board never functioned. No medical examinations were

conducted and the issue of compensation was conveniently forgotten.

One thing that everyone is agreed upon is that the State's

Mining Policy definitely needs to be revisited and revised, to ensure

safety and justice for the millions of mine workers eking out a

livelihood in the largely unorganised sector.

The first step would be to insist on employment records. Most

workers spend their entire lifetime working as casual labourers.

Employment registers are mostly incomplete, if maintained at all.

Some workers get wage-cards for attendance, but are not allowed to

keep copies of it since this would be against the employers' interests;

if the number of workers officially crosses 25, the employer would

have to provide for gratuity, maternity leave, provident fund and so

on. Living conditions of the workers are also sub-standard. Since most

of them are immigrant workers, they live in tiny shacks without their

families; 15-20 men share a single room. Women rarely have the

shelter of a roof.

Women also fare worse in the matter of wages; they are paid

only INR 50/- a day, which is below the minimum wages in the State.

They are told that they do not work `as hard as the men'. Women

constitute 37 per cent of the workforce in the mines, and children 15

per cent.

The State Labour Department has to be made more responsible

if the workers are to receive justice. As of now, it does not resolve

disputes involving amounts greater than INR 1,800/-. For claims above

INR 1,800/-, the labourer has to go to court.

The State's apathy to the well-being and safety of the workers in

a sector that brings in Crores of Rupees as revenue is quite worrying.

All attention is directed towards raising production, while the welfare

of workers is conveniently ignored. In fact, a telling statement of the

State government's lack of concern in this matter is its Mineral Policy

2005, where the welfare of workers finds mention only in one short

paragraph towards the end.

The document mentions health camps for workers, but serious

issues such as accident compensation and occupational disease are

not even mentioned in the passing in this policy document.

In places like Makrana where marble mining has traditionally

been the mainstay of the local economy, the situation is slightly

different. In Makrana almost every household is involved in some trade

related to either marble mining or processing of marble blocks, slabs

and tiles, or sculpting and making of ornamental marble artefacts, etc.

The settlers who came to work in the mines have created a large part

of Makrana town. The wage rates are slightly better than that in south

Rajasthan. But the area is affected by some complex problems. Large-

scale mining for many years, manual but extensive, has devastated

the landscape. The older mines have become deep and are filled with

water after the rains. Highly mechanized forms of mining are required

to be able to extract the marble and retaining profitability. This has

affected older mines and the people working there with only manually

operated cranes as mechanical support.

Large dealers in marble processing have moved into Makrana

over time. These people control the marble prices both of the raw slab

(from the quarry) and the finished product. The rate at which a marble

slab is bought from the mines is much lower than the processed

product. Large-scale processing is done at the larger units. Household

units processing and manufacturing marble products are slowly going

out of business. The new marble mines coming up near Makrana are

all large leaseholds with a high degree of mechanization. A lot of

erstwhile agricultural land is also being mined.

Makrana town is a hub of commercial activity but lacks even the

basic infrastructure needed by such a town. It has no roads, no proper

sewage system and most critically no water. The sludge and slurry

from the processing units are deposited in every available inch of

place. The very air is laden with marble dust, reducing visibility in the

night. Huge sheds, godowns and processing units cover large areas,

while deep mines that look like ravines occupy the remaining land. In-

between are the small, congested settlements where even water for

daily consumption has to be bought at a price.

In the midst of all this there are the large enclosed areas of rich

private landowners. These are people with high political connections

and they control a lot of the marble trading in this area. One of the

settlements is Kalanada, where 3,000 people have been living for the

last fifty odd years. These people had come to work in the marble

mines years ago and had settled down in the area. Kalanada has of

late received an eviction notice. The grapevine has it that this has

come about because the local MLA here wishes to extend his property.

Makrana is literally disintegrating but mining continues to expand like

a demoniac machine gone insane.

 On January 7 2007, two marble mines (no. 44 and 45) in the

Chak Dungri range in Makrana collapsed, taking down with them a

closed railway line and a section of a marble-cutting unit, which is

more than 45 metre away. In a miracle of sort, however, nothing

happened to the labourers working there. The collapse was due to a

blast.

There is, however, no guarantee that something like that won’t

happen again, which may prove fatal to those working there, for the

authorities do not seem to have taken any lesson. Illegal mining in the

area beyond the allotted boundary is rampant with scant regard to

safety norms, turning the mines into death traps where a tragedy is

just waiting to happen.

There are 55 mines on a seven-kilometre stretch, parallel to

the Makrana-Parbatsar railway line, which was closed down a decade

ago. Over the years, several mine owners have gone beyond their de-

marcated limit right under the railway tracks and even beyond them,

with the authorities feigning ignorance and in some cases helpless-

ness.

Laxmichand Punia, Senior Engineer, North West Railways, has

filed a complaint against the owners of the mines that collapsed on

January 7th but has little hope that an action would be taken. The North

West Railways has filed several complaints with the Mines Department

and the state government, but all in vain. They have not been able to

limit the lease owners who have started underground mining, following

which there is a fear that the land will give way anytime.

In 1999, the Rajasthan High Court ordered the mine owners

to deposit INR 4 Crore for relocating the railway line but they have

failed to do even that. Manoj Rajaram, one of the mines which col-

lapsed, said that they are not doing any illegal mining and neither

there was any blast.

The MLPC has filed a writ petition related to the condition of

mining in Makrana with the Supreme Court. However, the pathetic con-

dition of marble mine workers and the most primitive condition of

mines have caused innumerable problems, including environmental

destruction, safety issues and health hazards for the mine workers and

general population living around the mines. Most mines continue work-

ing despite closure notice.

Though mining beyond the permissible limit does not fall into

Government’s preview but it had issued notices to more than 450

mines under Section 22/3 and clearly stated they are dangerous, many

of these are on the seven-kilometre stretch. State’s safety mines de-

partment based in Ajmer had informed the state government that

mines need to be shut down. The Safety Mines Department cannot do

that as it’s a small department and do not have the physical strength

to enforce these notices.

Tiger Sanctuary Or Mining Complex?

ariska is a tiger sanctuary situated in Alwar, one of the northern

districts of Rajasthan. The low hills of Sariska till recently were

covered with densely forested slopes, and the land between the

hills covered by deciduous forestlands, which were home to the tiger

and other wildlife, and an entire ecosystem fuelled by the animal food-

chain.

SThe ground water table in the villages around Sariska is quite

high and the agricultural land here is very fertile and productive. Until

recently, Sariska was an idyllic sanctuary ensconced among the hills,

surrounded by villages and hamlets that thrived on agriculture along

the peripheries of the tiger sanctuary. As tourism expanded, so did

opportunities, and near Ajabgarh village, a large heritage resort is

coming up, on the banks of a barrage built by the Maharaja of Jaipur

during the last century.

Sariska's proximity to the Delhi-Jaipur-Agra golden quadrilateral,

apart from fuelling the growth of niche tourism, has also made the

area quite lucrative for siting other projects as well. As many as

thirteen distilleries are expected to come up in the region, and step up

operations in the Alwar district.

Large-scale mining in the sanctuary buffer zones, however is the

bane of the region, causing irreparable havoc in the area. The

Supreme Court, in the early 90s, gave an indictment in response to a

writ petition filed by a local NGO, ordering closure of mines working

inside the reserve's buffer area.

Among the mines closed as per the Supreme Court Judgment

was HCL’s Copper mine in village Kho-Dariba, Alwar district. Water

containing toxic copper compounds continues to seep out of the mines

into the village to this date. Also there is an almost three story high

waste dump outside the processing unit right next to the mine. Every

monsoon, rainwater cuts deep furrows in the dump washing toxic

heavy metals into the surface water sources of the villages below.

While the public sector mine still remains closed as per the apex

court’s ruling. But within a year almost all other mines in the

unorganised sector mining marble in the belt having substantial

deposits have started functioning again. In villages like Tilwad and

Tilwadi, marble mining operations are taking place right in the middle

of the village on purchased private agricultural land. Many of the large

landholders in the villages are today keen on selling their agricultural

land as they are getting high prices for it.

In most of the better-off families in the region, the occupational

pattern is changing, with the children getting educated and moving

away from agriculture based activities, and urban transition becoming

more possible and desirable. With these people selling of their

considerable landholdings, the land use in the area is also changing

rapidly. For instance, in Tilwadi village, pieces of marble blasted from

the mines fall into the nearby agricultural land. Rainwater released

from the mine sites was also flooding the neighbouring lands. In such

situations the agricultural productivity of land is going down due the

impact of mining. Sooner or later most people would sell. The opinions

commonly held in the area also seem pro-mining and many are in

favour of monetisation of transaction.

In all the big mines coming up the local people seem to be

playing the roles of contractors and middleman, sometimes employed

by the mines as cashiers and administrators, etc.

Most of the labour here comprises members of migrant

communities from the nearby districts of Sawai Madhopur and Rural

Jaipur. Mining is expanding rapidly in an area, which has some of the

most fertile lands, with plentiful water supply. The dominant opinion

rife in the area seems to favour all outside intrusions that could lead to

a monetary windfall for the local populace. In the meantime the

Sariska forest area is seen to be dwindling and shrinking. The

forthcoming plans of a national highway through this area would speed

up this process of the rape of an idyllic outpost.

In one of the villages within the Sariska buffer zone, the women

leave the village at four in the morning and come back at around 9 am

after collecting fodder for the cattle. According to them every year it is

getting slightly more difficult to meet the requirement, as the forests

have thinned some more and one has to go collecting fodder higher

and higher up in the hills. The end of innocence, or is it a sign of

things to come?

The Sandstone Economy of Jodhpur

andstone quarrying is a major source of livelihood and revenue

in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. Although it is a minor

mineral, sandstone earns the third largest revenue in the state

of Rajasthan. Sandstone had traditionally been in use for building

purposes in the district and nearby areas. It has a substantial local

market within the state, and an ever growing demand in several other

states primarily given its decorative possibilities. The hills adjoining

the urban agglomeration of Jodhpur city are capped with alternate

beds of coarse and fine-grained sandstone. In these areas sandstone

quarries stretch outwards for miles together on all sides.

S

Quarry licenses are located adjacent to each other along a

continuous bed of sandstone. In the quarry areas, which sprawl out

over ten kilometres in some places, it is difficult to distinguish

individual lease areas. Individual quarries generally do not have any

names. Each quarry however has a demarcated work force within a

complex system of hierarchy. The family members of the leaseholders

also work in some of these quarries but these cases are few and far

between.

Generally the lease area is divided into portions and given to

individual contractors who further have a number of people working

for them or in some cases do the entire work themselves. The entire

operation is done manually using hand tools like hammer, plinths and

tape measures. After the initial clearing up of the soil and overburden,

the exposed sandstone slabs are measured and manually extricated,

cut and sized.

Hard labour for long hours shortens the work life of most people

working in the sandstone mines. Men do the actual quarrying.

Women do the work of clearing and loading the rubble and debris. The

payment is either on piece-rates or on daily-wage basis. Among the

people who work in the mines, while some come from nearby villages,

the largest number is from neighbouring districts. There is a high rate

of indebtedness among the quarry workers. This is, as cited earlier,

primarily due to the practice of taking advances from the contractors

and/or the leaseholders.

This kind of bondage due to indebtedness is extremely common

in the area. People from nearby districts who come to work in the

quarries live in rented shacks close to the quarry sites, which are

generally owned by the leaseholders to whom they pay rent. Although

the quarry sites are small (not more than 100 x 200 feet), all nearby

areas for kilometres are used as a dumping ground for the large

quantities of debris generated by these quarries.

Mounds of sandstone debris in continuous rows extending up to

10 kilometres are visible from long distances. It is difficult to determine

the pre-mining land use of the area. So the extent of encroachment

into common land, agricultural land, etc. is also difficult to enumerate.

Sandstone mining has an ecologically degrading effect on the

surrounding landscape due to the problem of disposal of large

quantities of debris that it generates as well as the formation of large

and deep pits. In fact the heaps of the overburden of low-grade stones

and rubble in places occupy areas larger than the actual quarry sites.

Interventions For Righting Wrongs

rafting interventions to right the several wrongs that have

made life a living hell for a large cross section of Rajasthan's

people, numbering about 30 million working in the primitive

mines of the state has preoccupied several organizations and activist

groups in the state.

CAt the first instance, this has involved protecting the livelihood of

the people. This entailed intervening into the system to effect changes

that are desirable, or to oppose changes that are considered

undesirable. We can define as ‘desirable changes’ as follows:

Generation of alternative means of livelihood

Regeneration of livelihood sources

Rehabilitation of the displaced

The ‘undesirable changes’ could be activities that lead to the

displacement of a local population. Intervention in this case would be

to oppose the activity causing the undesirable change. The methods,

which have been used to pursue the above objectives, may be

classified as under:

Research and Documentation

Networking, Campaigning and Advocacy

Defining Intervention

Without losing way in the esoteric ramble of infinite possibilities,

an attempt is made to understand in simple terms, what does

intervention entail?

A clear assessment of the issue one is concerned with

An understanding of the intervening agency’s skills, capacity,

specific, advantages, commitment, etc.

The people in question. These are the local inhabitants in

context. The concern is for vulnerable and marginalized group.

The objects of intervention being to progressively reduce and

ultimately aid in eliminating the conditions of marginalisation.

Whether one is working “for them” or “with them” or “inspite of

them”, determines the foundation of intervention.

Organisation Profiles

everal organisations have been working with the dispossessed

lot of mine workers in the state for more than a past decade or

so, and have been mounting interventions in their respective

core areas of operations to alleviate the abject state of affairs within

these mining communities. Interventions have ranged from

mobilization to building social awareness to organising workers

wherever possible to form pressure groups demanding a better work

environment for the communities that are dependent on the activity of

mining in the state. A brief profile of some of them, and their activities

are presented here. The profiles are followed by some general

observations on the status of the mine workers in these regions as

addenda...

S

Samajik Sudhar Evam Manavadhikar Suraksha Samiti:

The organisation was registered in 1994. Between August 1995

and March 1996, the organisation undertook a project to collect

baseline information about mine workers in seven blocks of Udaipur

and Rajsamand districts. August 1996 onwards, they have been

working towards unionising mine workers, and undertake advocacy

through media.

Jyoti Jan Vikas Sansthan:

In 1993-94 the organisation undertook an environmental

regeneration programme in the Udaipur district. The next project in

the two-year period between 1995 and 1997 it organised mine workers

in Udaipur and Rajsamand districts.

Sarita:

In 1993 the organisation organised environmental awareness

camps in forty villages of Udaipur and Dungarpur districts. The special

focus of the camps was to address the various issues related to mine

workers. In 1995 Sarita initiated a project aimed at the regeneration of

a mineral cooperative society at Kaya and Balwara villages.

GVVS (Grameen Vikas Vigyan Samiti):

In 1992, GVVS conducted a baseline survey among the

sandstone mine workers of Jodhpur, conducted several state level

workshops, which led to the formation of a networking and advocacy

agency for the mine workers called the MLPC. Organised a

documentary film production on the condition of mines and mine

workers. Undertook medical examination of a sample of 450 mine

workers to detect the incidence of silicosis and tuberculosis. A PIL was

filed in the state high court resulting in the establishment of a state

silicosis medical board.

GVVS also organised a leadership-training program for the mine

workers, which led to the formation of Jodhpur Zilla Khan Mazdor

Sangathan.

MLPC:

Formed as a regional level advocacy and networking body, the

MLPC has been able to attain some major judicial breakthroughs. The

organisation's efforts have been invaluable towards making some of

the mining legislations available under the statute to become

functional in the district. Represented by eminent lawyers and

development professionals, its base is constituted primarily of the

middle class, and successful campaigning at the legislative and media

level has not yet called for the active involvement of miners. The vast

and spread out nature of the mining activities in their core area of

operations make it necessary that inroads are made into the settled

communities of miners to start with. Their involvement is imperative

for the implementation of progressive decisions.

It is the premise of the organization that people who work the

mines can form a mine workers union. In the present case, the concept

of the union emerged out of the organization first, and then contacts

were made with people mobilising them to join the union. Identification

with the Zilla Pathar Khan Mazdoor Sangathan is yet to be completed.

But the movement is gaining ground as a dispute settler because of

the involvement of the lawyers, but the base that is thus being built

still needs to take root among the miners. With only one full-time field

level worker covering the 5000 odd quarries in and around Jodhpur,

this will definitely take time.

Concerted campaigning by the organisation was instrumental in

getting the Supreme Court order which led to the formation of the

State Silicosis Board. But the constitution of the medical board does

not ensure that it will become functional. For the moment the board

exists only on paper.

Judicial injunctions are not yet enough to mobilise political will

which is largely absent in the state due to the entrenched vested

interests of dominant players. The state will be willing to pay any

amount of lip service as long as it does not have to disturb the

powerful mining lobby. Indeed many of the political brotherhood have

personal stakes in these mines. The maximum utility out of the

professional service offered by the lawyers can be derived only with

supportive field level presence, which is missing at the moment. The

combination of MLPC and a strong union could become a formidable

strength.

The vortex of MLPC still remains in Jodhpur, the place where it

was initiated and founded. South Rajasthan's mining areas being

equally large or even larger, with its own set of complexities, requires

a different strategy and substantial efforts, independent of what is

happening in West Rajasthan. The undivided Udaipur district covers a

total area of 17,279 square kilometres, which is larger than the entire

state of Orissa, for instance. The Jodhpur district, covering an area of

22,850 square kilometres, is even larger. To organize mine workers all

over the district is too broad a mandate for the localised interventions

and would demand superhuman skills. At present mining in Rajasthan

is characterised by violations of all kinds. The entire industry is thriving

on irregularities. It is unlikely that this form of mining activities would

change into any other form of production, as their profitability and

survival is built upon unorganised, labour intensive mining.

Whatever the policy changes, mining in Rajasthan is likely to be

dominated by this form for more time. This is primarily because new

entrants are interested in high value minerals like base metals, lignite,

gold, gemstones as well as explorations for oil and gas.

The thriving unorganised industry involved in building

construction materials and decorative stones is unlikely to be

disturbed. Till now MNCs have not entered the mining sector in the

state, and foreign investment in mining will take some more time to

materialise.

Rajasthan’s Mineral Policy implemented in 1994 was geared to

make things easier for the private sector. The various exploration

projects are presently at an MOU stage. The ultimate materialisation of

many of these would be dependent on several factors. Once they are

formalised they would have a critical impact on settled habitats due to

their sheer size and nature of production. To intervene effectively in

these areas in the future, one would need to have strong base in

combination with coherent strategies in place much in advance.

The case of Sariska

The North Rajasthan experience has been quite interesting. The

concerned organisation has been working in the Sariska reserve area,

in the north-western part of Alwar district. This area is

characteristically different from the rest of Rajasthan. It has better

rainfall and till recently the Sariska hills were covered with dense

forests. A number of rivers originating in the hills resulted in the

creation of fertile lowlands with high agricultural productivity. Things,

of course, have started to change now.

In village Gubbara Vyas, about six to eight kilometres from

Ajabgarh, the women in the household wake up very early. They move

out around 4 am in the morning only to return five hours later, with

large head-loads of fodder and small timber. Every year they get up

slightly earlier, come back slightly later.

This is because they have to go further and further into the hills

to meet the daily fodder requirement of their household cattle. The

forests are slowly disappearing. The land owning classes in the area

are upwardly mobile. They are intent on selling off their agricultural

land at high prices. Some have built big houses for themselves,

bought cars, many are moving to urban areas.

The proximity to Delhi, the locational advantage of the Delhi-

Jaipur highway has made the area extremely lucrative for investors.

Distilleries, mines and hotels are the major bidders. Land prices have

soared in the area. In the Sariska region in particular, a rash of mines

scar the land. Most of the marble mines were situated in the buffer

zone of the sanctuary area, until an effective PIL filed by TBS resulted

in a Supreme Court order declaring the closure of some 200 mines in

the area. Less than three years after, the bigger mines have managed

to open up again and start operations despite the order. Between

Baldeogarh and Tilwadi, along the edges of Sariska, piles of rubble,

boulder and disused machinery mark scores of closed mines. Crane

heads are visible for miles around. Those operations had come to a

standstill.

In many other areas inside the sanctuary mining continues

unabated. Marble mining is on in full swing along a single stretch

surrounding Tilwad, Tilwadi and few other villages all the way up to the

foothills. The place is scarred with rubble heaps and dusty with

decrepit machinery. The hillside, literally on the body of the sanctuary,

was stripped bare of all vegetation, ugly red in places and stark white

wherever marble veins have been exposed. The people who had come

to work in the mines live in pitched tents. That particular settlement

was entirely made up of migrants from Sawai Madhopur district.

The present mine sites are on agricultural land, surrounded by

land were cultivation is still going on. The water flowing down the

irrigation channels was seen to be full of white scum due to in large

chunks of boulders flying into farming compounds.

Men and women working in the surrounding agricultural land run

serious risk of being hit by these boulders. Instances of low-lying

agricultural land being flooded due to water released from the mines

are also common. Marginal landholders who face the brunt of the

impact have the least say in the villages. The general sentiment in the

villages, especially the powerful and the influential opinions, remain

pro-mining. Inside the Jamuva Ramgarh sanctuary in Jaipur district,

there exists a large soapstone mine. Countless dolomite and marble

mines exist inside villages at Dausa too.

There was considerable difference in the way people perceived

mining in these areas. The landed people of the community owning

large tracts of land, were able to higher prices for their land sold to the

mine owners, but the poorer people with less tangible assets were

caught up in the fast deteriorating environment. The prospect of the

proliferating mines, the large heritage hotel coming up in the area, the

proposed helipad, the planned construction of a national highway

cutting across the area, were all seen as signs of positive

development. Whether one can consider this as the general sentiment

in the area or not, it was obvious that this was the perception of a

sizable number of the articulate population. A number of ‘rags to

riches’ stories were also bandied about within ten minutes, as proof of

prosperity. The rising land prices were cited as the first tangible gains,

followed by employment generation.

Our reading of the situation here was very disturbing. On the one

hand mining seemed to be intensifying and the general public

sentiment was looking at if as a means of achieving short term and

quick monetary gains. Purely judicial measures would be inadequate to

check the growing menace of mining in this area if people who live

here do not see a solid case for defence.

TBS (Tarun Bharat Sangh)

Tarun Bharat Sangh has been campaigning against illegal mining

inside Sariska wildlife sanctuary for several years now. It was the

organization that filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, which

resulted in the Supreme Court decision of 1991, ordering the closure of

215 mines. In 1993-94, TBS undertook soil and water conservation in

19 villages falling within the Sariska buffer area under Eco-

regeneration program and attempted to provide employment to the

erstwhile mine workers. In 1996-98 TBS undertook similar campaigns

against illegal mining in the Jamuva Ramgarh sanctuary area in Jaipur

district.

It cannot be said that all people are unanimously promoting

mines. Among stakeholders, hierarchies are bound to exist. Many

would have more to lose than gain from the situation, this besides the

large and irreparable loss of the forest and fertile lands. The situation

is indeed complex and critical.

Theoretically, TBS has adopted the most logical method of

functioning. The organization’s approach has been localised. This had

entailed:

identifying the causes for disruption of local environment; for

instance, the indiscriminate and illegal mining in the Sariska

region.

evolving possible solutions to the problem, both immediate like

filing a writ in the supreme court as well as long-term planning

like the undertaking of eco-regeneration work to reduce the

dependency of the local population on exploitative mining

sector.

Having identified mining activities as having a detrimental effect

on the environment and livelihood of poor, the organization has

applied legal pressure. This proved effective as the enterprises

were on shaky grounds, operating from protected areas.

There are 19 villages inside the Sariska wildlife sanctuary spread

over an area of 800 square kilometres. TBS with all its excellent

documentation backup and being the winner of a legal situation would

have to roll up its sleeves and look for allies among the local

populations. To build up local resistance to contain the occurrence of

such activities, attempts are to be made to provide alternative

livelihoods to the people. To be convinced about the need to resist

such encroachments is required for any intervention. Since within the

concerned area varied and diverse needs have to be addressed, there

has to be some balance among the variety of stakeholders. But first, is

there identification against a common adversary? If not this must first

be created.

TBS’s considerable efforts at environmental regeneration, superb

achievements in themselves, might remain decontextualised due to

lack of claimants.

Summarising Intervention Efforts

nterventions that have taken place in the mining sector of the

State are primarily of three types and each has achieved some

tangible results. But follow-up activity is needed if the gains

accrued so far are to be built upon:

I Mining activities in protected areas have been opposed and

some gains have been made. However the lack of community

participation has hampered the realisation of gains achieved

through judicial intervention. There is an urgent need to identify

ecologically fragile areas and oppose initiation of mining

activities in these areas.

Much of the NGO work in Rajasthan is aimed at enhancing the

power of mine workers to improve their living and working

conditions. Greater involvement of the people should be

facilitated to bargain for improved entitlements and basic rights.

Regeneration of natural resources and their effective

management must be promoted as action in this front is slow.

Intervention options need to be more focused, taking into

account the complex regional variations. At present the

intervention areas as well as the mandate is too broad for the

intervenors who are located in specific areas and whose spread

is limited.

Upholding The Law

fter all that has so far been achieved, upholding the law to

improve livelihoods and the environment is now the imperative

that the intervenors are facing. To elaborate, during the past

three decades, exploitation of Rajasthan's mineral resources through

unscientific and illegal mining has created an environmental and

human disaster. The fragile ecology of the desert has been severely

damaged, threatening the livelihoods of tribal inhabitants (adivasis) of

the Thar Desert, who used to rely on agriculture for subsistence but

have been forced because of persistent droughts to work most of the

year as miners.

A

Although outsiders are not by law allowed to mine in the region,

they do, and today these illegal mine operators employ more than 1.5

million miners, mostly dalits and adivasis, who work for less than

minimum wages in hazardous conditions.

A current Foundation grant to the Mine Labour Protection

Campaign (MLPC), a network of NGOs, activists and environmentalists,

is providing seed capital for the formation of fourteen cooperatives

made up of local adivasis to bid for mining leases. For the past year

MLPC has worked with the adivasis to raise awareness about their

legal rights and to help them acquire leadership and negotiating skills.

The goal is also to allow the local population to retain the benefits from

the land they have lived on for generations.

In October, the first of the cooperatives, made up of 81 adivasi

families, succeeded in winning a lease near Udaipur. Cooperative

members contributed INR 40,000/- towards the cost of the lease, and

although this is just four per cent of the total cost, it gives them a

significant stake in what happens to the land. MLPC has worked with

the cooperative and with the local government department of mining

and geology to develop a strategy to extract the mineral wealth from

the land without further degrading the environment. Now that the

cooperative owns the lease and will be able to retain the profits from

the mines, livelihoods are expected to improve. In addition, the

cooperative is obligated to spend five per cent of its profits for

providing better health care and education to the families in the

region.

Every month, MLPC conducts follow-up workshops to monitor the

cooperative's progress and to help identify leaders within the

community. The long-term goal is to develop awareness throughout

the state, that adivasis have legal rights to the land and the

wherewithal to exercise those rights to improve their livelihoods.

Here we profile Jethwai Mine Workers’ Cooperative, which is

Rajasthan’s first mine workers’ cooperative set up by Bhils, a tribal

community. Mine workers of this community have reached the

pinnacle after forming a cooperative in Jethwai village of Jaisalmer

district.

Seeing the abysmal condition abounding the workers and

indignities heaped on them by the mine owners, Mine Labour

Protection Campaign (MLPC) stepped in 1999 at Jethwai. MLPC

engaged in organising mineworkers in Rajasthan since 1994 lend a

helping hand to form mineworkers union at Jethwai. In August 2001

‘Pathar Khan Mazdoor Union’ (Stone Mineworkers Union) was formed

with 95 members to address the pernicious issues confronting them.

To counter the onslaught and free the workers from the vortex of

oppression, the union raised matters like timely payment, safety

conditions for mine workers, shelter, register attendance, regular

employment, access to provident fund and proper compensation in

accident cases.

Pathar Khan Mazdoor Union functioned as key facilitator and

intervened whenever the rights of the mine workers were violated.

Formation of union in Jethwai created ripples in the village, particularly

in restoring the rights back to mine workers. But this did not bring a

sea change particularly in fulfilling the genuine requirements of

community such as ensuring wages for every worker.

MLPC worked with the mine workers of Jethwai to become the

owners of the resources of the mining. The purpose was to give them a

sense of ownership and dignity by forming co-operative. The idea of

forming co-operative for mining activity was a new experience for the

mineworkers. With the support from MLPC, Pathar Khan Shramik Theka

Sahkari Samiti Limited (PKSTSSL) was registered in November 2002 to

facilitate the mine workers to take up mining leases. It is one of the

India’s first mining co-operatives. Heralding a new beginning in the

lives of mineworkers from Bhil community, who dreamt for decades to

start and operate a mine.

“Prior to formation of cooperative MLPC organised meetings and

workers to sensitise us on the benefits of forming co-operatives. A 7-

day training camp was organised at Jethwai in which Central Workers

Education Board (CWEB) Regional Director, RS Mathur, gave us basic

tips on forming co-operatives. In this training camp, there were 40

participants out of which 17 became members of the co-operative.

Others were reluctant to get involved in the co-operative as they were

afraid of losing their jobs in the mines. However, they were interested

to join the cooperative but their huge indebtedness pulled them back.”

said Narayan Ram, a member of the cooperative.

Jethwai’s Pathar Khan Shramik Theka Sahkari Samiti Limited is

an assemblage of 17 mineworkers that undertakes activities as an

enterprise to earn profit out of their labour. The profit earned is

equally distributed among the cooperative members, the mineworkers.

Since acquiring leases to extract minerals, the cooperatives have been

earning considerable profit.

“The private mine owners ganged up against us to delay the

allotment of leases to our cooperative. Even the patwari did not show

up for months to measure the allotted land. Our cooperative were

allotted two leases of one hectare each, on paying a dead rent of INR

20,000 per hectare in September 2003. Only Bersi Ram and I started

working and others finally joined in December 2003. But, when we

started we had no crane to remove the big stones during mining

operation. Even the private mill owners were creating hindrances in

our way by put pressure on the agencies, from where we hired the

cranes. Moreover, hiring a crane from outside for INR 40,000 per

month, which we thought was sheer wastage of money. To purchase a

new crane at INR 9.5 lakhs for the cooperative was another challenge.

With INR 4.5 lakhs as a non-interest loan from MLPC, INR 2 lakhs

financed by UCO Bank and INR 2 lakhs of the cooperative, we brought

a crane in June 2004. After having this crane, the production of our

cooperative has gone up by 20%,” said Kanha Ram, the Cooperative’s

President.

Despite constant pressures from private mine owners the

PKSTSSL, earns enough profit to pay our INR 30,000 as monthly

instalments to UCO Bank. It is also able to raise considerably the

income of its members.

Khushala Ram, a member of the cooperative, is quite ecstatic

narrating his freedom from the exploitative clutches of the private

mine owners. “Now I earn INR 200 a day, twice what I got earlier from

the same amount of work. Earlier, we used to work for 10 days putting

backbreaking work from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. Then we have to waste 5 to

10 days running after the thekhedar (contractor) to get our wages.

Apart from extraction and processing work, mine workers have to load

the stones in the truck, for which they were not paid. But now we are

paid by the truck owners for the loading job,” said Khushala Ram.

Khushala Ram and sixteen other members of the cooperative earn

around INR 4,000 to INR 5,000 a month. They used to earn between

INR 1,500 and INR 2,000 and always were in debt as there was no

timely payment.

“Mineworkers are born in debt and die with debt. Most of the

debt is because of medical expenses incurred for elders in family who

have spent the prime period of time working in mines and acquired

occupational diseases like silicosis. While forming the co-operative at

Jethwai we encouraged mine workers trapped in bonded labour to join

the cooperative, but there was reluctance. MLPC extended monetary

help to free the workers from the trap of the mine owners. One

month’s food grain was lent to the member by the cooperative, which

helped to free them from the bondage. This experience was a lesson

to all the mine workers in Jethwai. Even it helped the cooperative and

the villagers to put pressure to ensure that the mine owners pay fair

wages to the workers,” said Kishen Lal Jakhar of MLPC.

MLPC’s relentless endeavour has been able to bring change in

the lives of mineworkers. Through its support, our co-operative has set

an example in strengthening and empowering of mine workers in

Jethwai. Our cooperative regular interacts with the mine owners for fair

wages, duty hours and other benefits the mineworkers are entitled for.

Even our cooperative has initiated the process with the village

panchayat to ensure justice to the villagers who work as mineworkers

and check unauthorised and illegal mining,” said Kanha Ram.

“Workers engaged by private mine owners had to stay put either

under the open sky or in small huts covered with tin sheets on stone

pillars just two and half feet high. In the sweltering summer or freezing

cold, it was the only shelter available to the workers, where they could

enter in a sitting posture. Inside the hut, the inner space was also

insufficient. But now at the mine owned by the cooperative, we have

built a room and a well for workers so that they can rest, whenever

they need after putting up a hard labour,” added Kanha Ram.

Members of the co-operative have paid off all their debts. Earlier,

they used kerosene lamps at night but now all of them have electricity.

Most of their children were forced to leave on the account of family’s

increasing debt now they are back at school. “It was quite difficult to

arrange square meal for the family when we worked under private

mine owners but now we have been able to free ourselves from our

impoverished condition,” said Narayan Ram.

Pathar Khan Shramik Theka Sahkari Samiti Limited INR 2,000-

2,500 for a truckload of limestone weighting 15-20 tonnes and a truck

produces around INR 12,000-15,000 worth of limestone in three to

four days; the money is equally distributed among the three to four

members who quarried for that particular truck. “Since we get tired

doing three to four days of exhausting work, we need at least one

day’s rest. So all members do not work at one time,” said Kanha Ram.

Seven to eight truckloads of limestone, quarried in a month, earn

the Jethwai cooperative around INR 84,000- INR 96,000. The

government charges a royalty of INR 65 per tonne. After paying out

INR 50,000- INR 65,000 to its 17 members, the rest of the money is

used to pay the monthly instalment for the crane. The constitution of

the Jethwai cooperative provides for the equal distribution of 25% of

the accumulated profits among its members annually. The rest is used

to further develop the cooperative.

On track to pay up its bank instalments within six months, and

the MLPC money in 22 months, the cooperative is well on the path to

success. Wage rates range between INR 50 and INR 150, as opposed to

INR 30- INR 100 working in the private mines. The village is also

demanding the rehabilitation of mines and tax rights over mining in

the area. Aware of the environmental implications of mining activities,

workers at the cooperative have resorted to pit filing and the planting

of trees.

Taking the cue from the formation of mineworkers co-operative,

Women have formed a 20-member strong Self- Help Group (SHG)

under the nomenclature ‘Laxmi Swamsahayata Samhu’. The SHG

builds capacities of its members in making detergent, incense sticks,

toothpaste and powder, candles and pain relief ointment so that they

are independent enough to run their household. The SHG also runs a

small shop that provides villagers with all their daily requirements

right there in the village.

Within a span of four years, the cooperative’s activities had a

cascading effect on the empowerment of the villagers who have so far

been neglected and kept out from the development process.

Management of natural resources have improved, and Jethwai today is

definitely a better place to live in. Now cooperative assists the village

panchayat in checking illegal and unauthorised mining. This would

have had a benevolent impact on a landscape, which is ravaged by

indiscriminate mining and destruction of habitat. In Jethwai, where the

cooperative owns a mine, villagers have taken a decision to impose

fee on mineral extraction so that the panchayat can generate revenue

from mining for using it for the development of the village.

Now it is mandatory to obtain ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC)

from the panchayat for obtaining mining lease. Keeping the villagers’

welfare and its surrounding supreme in the mind as a direct fall out of

it villagers have been able to establish themselves as leaders in their

own right. It had inspired other gram panchayats of Jaisalmer district

to start playing proactive role in village level development

programme, particularly on issuing of NOC for mining leases and

protecting the traditional livelihood system. These panchayats are

developing their village environment management plans so that the

mining activities do not damage their natural resource and livelihood

support system.

Observations

n South Rajasthan mining areas, most of the hard labour work

involved in extricating the blocks was done by tribals who had

migrated from neighbouring tehsils at the behest of contractors. In

some of the mines near Sariska area in Alwar district, men and women

in the ranks of the unskilled category of labour were migrants from the

neighbouring districts of Sawai Madhopur and Jaipur.

ISome of the locals near Tilwadi village were actually employed in

medium level jobs like keeping accounts, driving the tractors, etc. in

the mines in the area.

The sandstone quarry stretches near the Keru area in Jodhpur

district has a mixture of locals and migrants from Barmer district. Both

Makrana and Jodhpur being centres of old mining activities have early

generations of migrants now settled in clusters near the mining areas.

Some of these areas in Jodhpur are named after the communities that

came and settled there. It is important to understand these differences

as they play important role in organising the community.

In the mining areas irrespective of the region, men and women

do different kinds of work. On the whole there are fewer women

involved directly in the mining activity. There are various reasons for

this. The Keru area in Jodhpur district has more than two thousand

sandstone quarries.

The work involves extricating neat pillars and slabs of sandstone

from the rock faces using nothing more than a hammer, chisel and a

measuring tape. Considerable physical strength is required to be able

to wield the hammers, driving in the plinths and cutting out the slabs.

The division of labour is clear. The men do work involving hard labour.

Women are involved in loading small broken pieces in the truck

or helping to clear the initial earth and rubble that is essential before

the actual sandstone layers are exposed. In comparison to the Udaipur

district, there were more women employed in the soapstone mines.

Soapstone mines in Jharan, bordering Alwar district have many women

working there despite a certain level of mechanistion in the area. The

women are hired to perform specific tasks like carrying the small

pieces and doing the straining of fine soapstone powder.

In Makrana there are hardly any women to be seen in the marble

mines though the case was different few years ago when there were

fewer machines and women operated manual cranes. The wages given

to the women are lower than what the men earn. But their

representation is low and employment is irregular. In rare cases the

daily wages can be higher than the minimum wages. In Jodhpur and

Makrana the wages are comparatively better than in South Rajasthan.

Interventions based on standard definition of minimum wages

might not be able to address the complex, exploitative systems of

payment in the mining areas. Besides the irregular system of wages, it

is the activity itself, which is extremely damaging to the person

performing it. It is a high-risk activity. To assume that people are

unaware of it would be making a mistake.

The precedent of a person’s shortened life expectancy and

general damage to health, after a stint at the mines, are things which

the community knows. They might not use the exact medical terms

but they are extremely familiar with the outcome. There are two key

points therefore in the intervention. Firstly, the community must be

convinced that something can be done about the existing situation and

secondly, that it can happen only with their involvement. Looking at

the impacts of the present interventions, one realises, how difficult it is

to make a serious dint in functioning of the unorganised mining sector,

despite concerted efforts by concerned bodies.