Learnings through the Block Placement about the issues of mine labours and policies

Labour epistemology- learnings are very insightful for me to the knowledge production in the context of rural mining area, which is very remote and backward area. Labours working in the mines sector, belongs to the lower castes and the tribes. These are exploited from the brahmanical system. Till now there is no more epistemological studies on the mines labours. They and their life's issues ignore from not only the government but also the scholars. So, I realize the most important thing, there is a need to learn about the mine labour epistemology or production of  a labour epistemology through the ontological enquiry by the perspective from within and perspective from below. It's very important for to understand the totality of reality of the labour and the mines affected area. Because the identity of these labours are brutally epistemicide by the upper caste hegemonic hindu society.

Systemic:

To understand the socio-political and economic system of these area- Caste system is very strongly functioning in various dimensions in the mining areas. People who are working in the mines, belongs to the SC and ST. These people are discriminated and exploited from upper caste. The socio-economic and socio-political system system are impacting very badly on daily life of the labours. They are living in very poor economic condition, people don’t have their pakka houses and the basic things. Labours are not fulfill their basic needs, because the daily wages are very low, which is not enough. They don’t afford the one time dinner or lunch without the daily mine work. Because they don’t have an other source of livelihood. They don’t have a voice against to the discrimination, so they are social depressed communities. At the workplace they are humiliated from the owners. Labours has no political representative, they don’t want to enter in the politics by the fear of upper caste. Tribes are survive in backward areas and  living in very fear. There is a need to awareness about the education and their rights. Also, important to economic upliftment of the mine labours. Consciousness about the plights of labour (caste and class for itself ) is the needy things.

Structural:

To understand the patriarchal caste-tribe class system in the mines area. Caste structure is very critical in Rajasthan for understanding the ground realities. It was difficult task for me to understand the actual facts. Because, it’s something different rather than Maharashtra. The context is very different of Rajasthan. Some scheduled caste peoples hide their identity and show’s they are upper caste and upper caste people show their identity as a lower caste for the profit of schemes of government, Exa. Yadav and jatav (budhpura-bundi) changed their identity as per the situation. Tribes are most exploited community at the mine work. Also, women are exploited at the workplace. The wages of women are lower than the men. It’s a patriarchal mind, that is women are not doing the hard work of stone cutting. But, they are working as like men and same condition. Ghunghat tradition is continues till now in rural area of Rajasthan, which is depressed to the women freedom. The structure of society is a fixed as a value and norms through which its a functioning. There is a need to fundamental structural changes in this value and norms through the Dalit and Tribal social work.

Sectoral:

According to the modern technologies and the policies are very useful for changing the world. These all are depends upon every sector. It means sectoral improvements are useful for that. Health , education, agriculture and livelihood sectors are not functioning very well. So, these are very backward area in every dimension. By the reason of mine work, people caused by the various diseases such as, silicosis, asbestosis. From the long time there was no good diagnosis system of silicosis. So, doctor reports shows the T.B. to the silicosis disease. That’s why the diagnosis of silicosis patient didn’t properly, people lost their lives. Till now in medical sector, there is no proper medicine and proper treatment for the silicosis. By the reason of poor economic condition, labour don’t get the nutritious food. There is need to proper implementation of health policies through new technologies. Children left from the school for learning a mine work from elder people at work place. Because, there is no awareness of education and the quality of education. There is a need of good education policies. By the reason of mines affected area, the impact is fall on the agriculture, livestock and the environment. Pollution of environment and soil is impacting on air and agriculture, which is directly and indirectly affecting to the life of mines labour. Good governance is totally abolished in that areas. So, it's a need to proper implementation of laws, rights and policies.

Contextual:

In Dalit and Tribal studies, context is play the very important role. Without understanding the context, we don’t understand the ground realities of that regions. Because, every region has a different context. Context of mine labour was a rural area of bhilwara and bundi district of Rajasthan. It's a context of mewar region, mewari is the local language in this area. So, the context of words are depends upon that region.

Owner of the land of mines in bundi district are scheduled tribe. But, this land take by the upper caste on lease for digging the mines in very few money, and continued the mine work from long years. But, now tribes are the labours on their own land. The upper caste people give some money to them as like greed. Mines owner earning profits in crores. But, they don’t provide the basic needs to labour. Labour don’t have a protection at the mine place. The mine work is a very risky work, which is caused by diseases or sometimes lost the life. It is a daily struggle of mine labor for live the life. They are adjusting in different situation,  but don’t raise the voice against the system. So, I learn to understand the context of regions, for understand the whole situation of labours.

Personal:

My personal learning is to change in my behaviour to the situation and to accept some ground realities which are happening there. These were useful to the communication with the people. I think it's very important, that is mixed in the culture of respondents and give the response to their questions. Also, adjustment in any situation, in which respondent are living, is most important things. Because, respondent doesn’t respond by the unknownness. He feel uncomfortable with the interviewer. My personal learning are to apply the research methods in the context of DTSA such as perspective from below and perspective from within. Also, case studies and the in depth interviews of directly and indirectly affected people. These will be very useful to theorise  the Dalit and Tribal epistemologies.

Ethical:

Ethics are very important in the field work, without its impossible to collect the information. We can’t define the good or bad in the duration of data collection. Our work is only collect the data which is a fact in the context of the mines labour. So, I collect the data of mines labour in the research sense ethically and morally.

Aesthetic learning:

The important thing is to search the beauty in local languages and the culture. Because, it’s a hide things. Without understanding of this rooted things, actual fact or data collection is impossible.

One more thing is very reflective to me about the work of NGOs. NGOs are not working for the fundamental change. Still now they don’t stand a big movement against this exploitation and the upper caste hierarchy on the mines. Therefore, the plight of mine labours is very bad.

Sharad Kodane

Lost Childhood

Picture credit- Neeraj Bunkar, Place- Budhpura village of Bundi district.

This is a picture that shows the failure of government schemes which meant for children. Right to education is far away from these children. It seems that the prohibition of child labor is not meant for these children. The inability of education and poor conditions of the family force them to work in this field at this age.

Those women who have children of 2 to 3 years and they work in the mining area, it becomes difficult for them to leave their children at home because in their home no one is there for look after their children. At the workplace, they do not have a shadow where they can keep their children, so they have to keep their children in the hot sun which sometimes makes their child sick.

By- Neeraj Bunkar

Economics of Mining: From a Labour perspective.

The History of mineral development is as old as the civilization. In the Indian context, it can be traced as far back as 6000 years. the remains of some of the old mines working are a witness to this fact. Mining Industry in India is a major economic activity and it contributes to the GDP is around 2% to 2.5%. However, the mining in India is also infamous for violation of human rights, environmental pollution, and mining scandals.

Mining industry as its a major contributor to the economy, people are looking at it as one of the reasons for the development of the country and it's true that mining industry has played important role in nation building after Independence and it is still playing an important role in the development of the country. I had the similar viewpoint for the mining sector, but during my fieldwork in Rajasthan, I came in contact of the mining villages and mining workers, and I realized that the development of mining industry comes with a cost, which is paid by the mine workers.

The village in which I was doing my fieldwork is a tribal village, mining started in this village around 1987. the mines are owned by upper castes and many of them are active in politics as a MLAs and MPs they used tribes as a pawn to take lease by giving them some money, the workers in the mines are tribes. There is no Labour union in this village, the owners don't hire local people as the locals have unity because of the same village and they can fight for their rights so therefore the owners don't hire locals. The workers work 8 to 12 hours and get very low wages, without any social securities and in extremely risky condition with very limited safety tools. The reason for the worst condition of the workers is also due to the tender system, the mines working under the tender system is discriminating mine workers more, they only provide one holiday in a month, giving fewer wages, and remove any worker at any time. the use of machines has increased rapidly and it reduced the workload for the worker but it also reduced workers in mines, now if anyone speaks against the discrimination then he will be removed from the mine work, so now the people need work in mines so they are doing it without complaining.

There are 2-3 shifts for work, the most owner wants 2 shifts so the worker can work 12 hours, and by this, they require less work in the mines so because of less worker they need fewer safety tools, and easy to control few workers. in many mines now only 20-25 workers are working in a single shift and the production doesn't decline as machines were introduced, so very few workers with technical skills are working there. The idea of the owner is to hire most capable and young people in mines, and to use more and more machines so can produce more in less time and money, so in most of the mines, the number of workers reduced to 40 % to 50%. In recent year the price of the marble has reduced but it doesn't affect the profit margin of the owner as they cut down labor and make them work more hours in same wages so their profit remained the same.

In this village, many people are migrating to other places in search of livelihood, as very few local people are getting a job in mines, and other options of livelihood have been destroyed by the mines like agriculture and livestock, so they are forced to migrate to other nearby cities or states. so the people of the village lost their land, as well as livelihood on his land forced to migrant to other places for work.

Contextualising Marx’s concept of Alienation in Mines.

Alienation is a state in which a person has the feeling of loneliness, Strangeness, estranged, worthless, meaningless or sense of having no belonging in the surrounding. This estranged situation, for some thinkers, is purely psychological, for someones, it is an intellectual phenomenon but for Karl Marx, it is a material and social process which affects human beings. During my fieldwork in a Tribal village of Rajasthan I got a chance to interact with the mine's workers, the workers are bound to sell their strength, skills, and power to the Mine owners, the process of alienation starts as the workers have no control over their product of labor or even on the labor, so they got estranged from it and fall prey to alienation.

In Marx concept, there are Mainly two classes: The working class and the capitalist class. the Capitalist class is non-workers, they control workers and makes profits by using their labor. But in the Indian context,t the situation is not that simple, and if we are looking at the tribal village the situation becomes more complex. The working class here is Tribes and the capitalist class is mainly upper castes, and having strong support from the state government.

The Dominant Upper caste owns Mines and Machinery and uses Local and Non-local Tribal people as Workers, Most of the mines are working on the Tender system, they Don't provide enough safety, wages and health facilities to the workers, they work more than 12 hours and have only one holiday in a month. Most of the workers neither know the owner of the mines they are working in nor the people who buy this product.

The workers put everything to their job but don't get anything in return, The design of the product and how it is produced are not determined by the workers, its decided by the owner of the mines, the activity of the worker to produce is seen as an exchange value, so by this way the owner controls the labor with an exchange value, they pay minimum wages to maximize their profits. so in this way workers feel Alienation from the product. In Mines, every worker has to do a different job, its endless sequences of discrete, repetitive motions their labor power reduced to wages. therefor the work is not voluntary but forced labor as to survive the workers has to work, their men of survival are based on monetary exchange, therefore They have no other choice than to sell labor power, it creates Alienation from the Process. In mines the labor of the worker is reduced to a commercial commodity that can be traded in the competitive labor market, rather than as a constructive socio-economic activity, it creates Alienation from the Process, because of the competition among workers they compete with each other for higher wages, due to this the Worker starts alienating from other workers and in place of fighting against the owners they start fighting against themselves. The workers don't get enough time for their family, they work around 12 hours in mines, they only get 1 holiday in a month, the production inside the mines don't give them any kind of satisfaction, when they work they don't feel their own self, so they get alienated from their own self while working in the mines.

Marble Mines of Rajasthan: A Gendered ‘field’ for Livelihood

In the ‘modern’ world, women have found most of the spaces where they were perceived as inferior or weak/tender. But there are still several sectors where women haven’t found space. Rajasthan is the biggest producer of marble in which women have negligible participation in the productive activity or as a labour. This post is an attempt to reflect upon the factors which are hindering their entrance into this sector.

Patriarchy has always stopped women to participate in social, economic and political activities. Patriarchy has always denoted women as inferior and tender and it gets often legitimised by various ‘sacred’ texts. On the other hand, Capital induced industrialisation has always claimed to be an economic reformer in terms of providing equal access to everyone devoid of identities and background. But the Indian context is somehow very mixed. Participation of women in economic activities has increased in the last three decades but the gendered ‘responsibility’ is still attached to them. The Women Empowerment Index’ (WEI) of 2017 has shown a positive trend in women empowerment of Rajasthan. It has clearly mentioned the increased women participation in education, economic activities and decision making. But in the case of mining, most of the things are stagnant.

From the field experience and after interviewing dozens of mine workers, it becomes very symbolic that mines are meant for the male. In this conception, women are perceived as biologically weak who cannot do ‘heavy’ tasks. This includes multiple stereotypes like; women can’t climb stairs in the deep mines, women can’t tackle heavy machines like drill machines and wire shaw and women’s mind is not capable of doing multiple things at the same time etc. Apart from it, they are considered to be a supporting character to a family rather than a breadwinner. Such conceptions not only make this space gendered but also helps to maintain the patriarchal ideologies by declaring men as ‘superior’. In some cases, women are given space for doing jobs but in those cases, they are provided jobs having less value like breaking marble with the hammer. Such jobs are not considered valuable or worthy therefore women are allowed to do work.

Picture credit: Neeraj Bunkar

Generally, marbles mines are open in nature and the workers have to work in harsh conditions. Although the working condition in an open mine is better than the closed one but the scope of risk is somehow equal. It is worthy to note that mines in Rajasthan have a very serious health impact on workers and diseases like silicosis is common in marble mines. Sometimes this space becomes very dangerous and may cost lives. Promoting jobs in such sector can’t be ethically right but one should also look upon gendered space of a large sector. Whatever the risks are they can’t be absolutely cleared but there is always a scope for minimising it. 

  

Development and Tribes of Rajasthan

There are many examples that wherever government took initiative for the development it ruins the life of tribes in most of cases in the state like Rajasthan.

Kanti Bai and her son in her house located alongside highway in Budhpura Village.

We can not imagine a life of tribal people in Rajasthan where women like Kanti Bai live in a small hut for many years with her husband and one son and one widow daughter. She belongs to Meena(tribal) community. When we asked about the housing schemes of government she said ‘government schemes not meant for people like us, nobody cares about us’. As her house situated on NH 76. She told us that her more than half land went into the highway and she got very less compensation. Government making highways for the better transportation it's good that now small villages also connecting to the cities which help people to get good educational, health and job facility but when it comes to tribe, it's not like that as they don’t want development which in spite of making their life better, but destroy. Kanti bai said that ‘ we never went to nearby cities in our life like Bundi and Kota which is just 50 km away from our place’.

Highway passing through Kanti Bai's house in Budhpura Village of Bundi District in Rajasthan.

Budhpura place is full of grey sandstone mines where most people engage in this sector with no facility and full of risk. Kanti Bai shared her experience that one day her husband got injured and they don’t have money for the treatment, so they applied the home remedy.  We can imagine that one side we are progressing in every sector and achieving big goals but on the other hand half of the rural population mostly Dalit and tribes living in the utter worst situation and deprived of basic human needs. Government allocating a huge amount for the tribes' welfare but in reality, it does not reach to the needy. Recently two years back government launched a scheme named PMKKKY (Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana) to develop the affected area in terms of better health facility, plantation, transportation, better housing condition, pure drinking water facility, access to education. But money is not being used in these areas. People living condition is getting worse day by day.

By- Neeraj Bunkar

Exploitation of mines labour

After the long year of mine work, they didn’t fulfill their basic needs. They are exploited from the owner of mines. Because, they don't have the voice of resistance against the exploitation of mine owners and the government system.

Absence of voice of resistance against the exploitation of power, kill to the existence of the human. Its a another type of slavery, which is abide to the maltreat or injustice. It is happening in the present india at various workplaces, by the reason of lack of consciousness and education.

Budhpura and the Dhaneshwar are the villages of Bundi district in Rajasthan, which are badly affected by mines. Peoples are totally depends upon the mines. Because, they don’t have any other sources of livelihood. People don’t have land, because, nearby 80% people are migrated from other states or other districts of Rajasthan, at that villages. Most of the people don’t have their own houses. 90% people are staying in the kachha houses, which are in very bad condition. By the reason of lack of drainage system in villages, in rainy season water flow in the houses and the unavailability of strong roof or terrace on upper side of the houses. There is 95% people don’t have the toilets. People don't get the profit of “pradhan mantri awas yojana” or “ mukhyamantri awas yojana”. They didn't get the profit of most of the government scheme. They have ration cards, but they don’t gain the profit. Sometimes only wheat or kerosene not much more. Their socio-economic condition is very bad, but they don't come under the BPL. It's a discriminatory system, which is exploit to them.

At the workplace, there is no any type of safety of labour exa, mask, helmet, freshwater, sheds for rest. By, that reason above 100 labour caused by the silicosis in both villages. As like various diseases are spreading day by day, by the reason of uncleanliness. In this condition people are working in the mines, but they don’t get enough money. They earn Rs 250 to 300 daily. Their stomach is depends on the daily wages. Women are working in the gitti cutting company, which are cuts on the shape of tiles. They earns Rs 50 to 60 daily. For every piece they get 1 Rs. But, owner sell to every piece of this tiles is Rs 8. It means his surplus value is very high, which is stand on the exploitation of the labour.

Someone said that is, “the owner of the land on which now  mines are starting, was the bhil community. But, now they are the labour on this land.” The situation of bhil community is very critical in these villages. They are very long from basic needs. They don’t have voice of resistance, that's why they are  exploited.

Its overall observation of these villages reflects the actual image of the labour situation. Its shows a socio-economic and educational backwardness of the labours.

Sharad Kodane