My first experience with Mines and Marginalized communities in the mining area of Jodhpur

        My first experience with Mines and Marginalized communities in the mining area of Jodhpur

I began my journey from Mumbai to Jodhpur with a lot of excitement to know about the minefield. I knew a little bit about the Jodhpur stones because people of my area in Churu district they use these type of stones in their buildings but was not fully aware of this sector. So I was curious to know about a thing of mining sector like how mine workers work in mines. And I was not having any kind of prior experience related to mining. So I started my journey with my classmates those were good friends of mine. The journey was not started as I expected. First we booked a cab for railway station and for that cab one and half hour after that driver chancel the ride and we had to book another cab that also took too much and we arrived at the station two or three minutes before running the train and yet one of our friends did not reach at the station so for him we had to pull the chain of the train and talked with railway department officials about that then it was not stopped at that movement we had very less cash with us but we had money in our ATMs so we managed still we reached in Jodhpur. We reached early in the morning and took some rest and in the afternoon we went to the mining area and see how the mines look like and got some important information about the mines and mining-affected area and also about the mine workers. After that, we went to Umaid palace that I have already seen in 2013 but my friends were new here they wanted to visit there so went and try to understand the history of Jodhpur and about Jodhpur royal family like how they used to live their lives and so on. After that the next day we started our journey for Udaipur we went through the forest area and we had a chance to see the beautiful sceneries in that area and that beautiful views helped to break the notion of my friends those are not from Rajasthan that Rajasthan has only desert area and Rajasthanis are struggling with the water issue. After reaching in Udaipur we had a chance to meet with people who are working on the issue of mines and silicosis disease. After that, I went back to Jodhpur in the evening with MLPC(Mining Labour Protection Campaign) NGO staff. Next day I went to field area where mine workers come to meet union worker those who raise their voice for mine workers rights and took few interviews of mine workers those are mostly Dalits(Meghwals) and tribals(Bhils). Now till today I have taken interviews from three villages Kaliberi, Sodho ki Dhani, Gandero ki Dhani here in all three place I found that only ST and SCs are working in mine and according to some mine workers So-called high caste people do not go to work in mines and those Dalits and Tribal people who are working in mining area affected by Silicosis disease and their economic condition is also very low. We can easily observe that they are not doing their caste-based occupation but they are still marginalized and struggling with their lives.