Informal Coal Mining: A Key Just Transition Challenge in India
Sandeep Pai and Savannah Carr-Wilson
Informal coal mining is an important, yet often neglected, aspect of the just transition narrative in India and other developing countries. For many poor families living in coal regions of developing countries, informal coal mining provides their sole livelihood. This book excerpt shares the story of a coal-cycle wallah in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand and illustrates the need to think about people engaged in informal coal based work when planning for just transitions.
With a population of 1.4 billion people, India’s energy demand is poised to double in the next two decades. Coal not only provides nearly half of the current total energy needs of the country but also employs millions of people directly and indirectly in a few eastern & central Indian states. In addition to formal mining, informal mining is an important source of income, in particular for poor people living in and around mining areas. While there are no official numbers on the scale of these informal mining activities, one study estimates that the amount of raw coal transported by coal-cycle wallahs in the eastern coal-rich states of Jharkhand and West Bengal grew from 2.5 million tonnes in the early 2000s to 3.7 million tonnes in 2012 (Lahiri-Dutt 2016).
Millions of people outside cities make their living as coal-cycle wallahs; it’s the only way they can feed themselves and their families. We visited Jharkhand and its mines in 2016 as part of researching our book Total Transition: The Human Side of the Renewable Energy Revolution.
Excerpt from the book
On our way back from visiting the mines, we drove along Patratu Road, a newly paved, high-quality road that extends out from Ranchi. Jindal Steel and Power Limited, a private company, built the road to ensure smooth transport of its products. The road cuts through swaths of lush green forest with towering sal and eucalyptus trees. This scene is occasionally broken up by vast rice paddies tilled by lungi-wearing farmers. Driving along the road, we began to see small groups of thin men pushing heavily laden bicycles. Each rusty, simple bicycle was packed with bags of coal, roped to the bicycle and sticking out in all directions like an elaborate headdress. The first bicycle we saw had eight medium-sized bags roped to both sides of the front of the bicycle frame, and five roped to either side of the back wheel. There was no chance that its thin, tired-looking owner could actually ride it. Instead, the coal-cycle wallah trudged next to the bicycle, slowly pushing it along.
We stopped along the way and got out to speak to one coal-cycle wallah who was pushing his bicycle uphill. In Hindi, wallah means “someone doing a particular thing.” For example, you can have a dukan wallah (a shopkeeper), a khanabanane wallah (a cook), or an istri wallah (someone who comes to your house and irons your clothes). So a coal-cycle wallah is someone in the profession of transporting coal on a bicycle. At first, the coal-cycle wallah was reluctant to stop and speak to us. He seemed exhausted yet determined to keep pushing his heavily laden bicycle to its destination. After we explained who we were and what we were doing, he paused and rested his bicycle for a moment. He introduced himself as Raju Munda.
Raju told us that he was from Gidi, the small town 60 kilometres away from Ranchi near where the Argada mine is located. “I spend all week with my family, scavenging coal from the nearby abandoned mine,” he told us. “My whole family is involved.” After the coal is scavenged, his family helps him wash it to eliminate any ash or other debris, and then cook it in burning, smoking piles near their home. This softens the coal and increases its quality so it can be sold for a higher price. Once a week Raju packs his bicycle with 18 or 19 sacks of coal, which weigh about ten kilograms each. This makes his whole bicycle extremely heavy, weighing close to 200 kilograms. Incredibly, the amount Raju carries is a small amount for a coal-cycle wallah — many carry more, up to 450 kilograms per bicycle.
By midweek he packs his bicycle with the coal chunks, then gets up at four in the morning the next day and sets out for Ranchi. He pushes his bicycle, laden with coal, nearly 60 kilometres along the shoulder of the highway. Much of the distance is very steep uphill. It is so steep that recently, a new motorcycle wallah business has sprung up. Motorcycle wallahs have started towing the coal-cycle wallahs up some of the largest hills on the route in groups of two or three, tying all of their bicycles to one motorcycle with a rope. The coal-cycle wallahs have to pay roughly Rs 100 (about US$1.50) per trip for this service. Many coal-cycle wallahs are willing to pay because otherwise they expend a huge number of precious calories pushing their bicycles up the steep hills. When you live hand to mouth, every calorie counts.
After his four a.m. departure, Raju pushes his bicycle for 14 to 15 hours with little rest, until about six or seven in the evening. Then he stops for the night and sleeps by the side of the road in a farmer’s field a few kilometres before Ranchi. The next day he wakes up at four again and pushes his bicycle the rest of the way, reaching Ranchi by eight or nine in the morning. This is where his week’s hard work culminates. Once he gets there, he sells his coal in the street, sometimes bribing police officers to look the other way. For Raju and his family’s difficult work all week, and Raju’s intense and arduous trek to Ranchi, he will make only Rs 800 to 900 (about US$12 to 14). After bribes, Raju is typically left with only about US$10. This means that overall, Raju and his entire family are making only about US$1.40 a day from their hard labour — just enough to eke out a basic existence, eating simple food like plain rice for every meal. Once he sells his coal, Raju will either load his bicycle on a bus or ride it back to Gidi — and then start his week’s work all over again.
Raju’s story opened our eyes to the incredible dependence that many people living in coal mining areas have on the coal industry. Working as a coal-cycle wallah is an extremely tough way to make a living, but these coal-cycle wallahs have no other option.
Meeting the Paris climate goals of keeping global warming well below 2 degree Celsius requires reducing long-term coal dependence globally and in India. Coal phase-outs require just transition plans in order to ensure that coal workers and their communities are not left behind in a low carbon future. Just transition is already a significant challenge in India, given the size of the coal-based workforce and existing need for stronger institutional supports. India’s vast informal workforce, including people like coal cycle wallahs, adds another dimension to the challenge, and must be taken into consideration in any just transition planning.
Sandeep Pai is a former journalist and current PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Savannah Carr-Wilson is a lawyer practicing environmental and Aboriginal law in Canada.
This piece is an excerpt from the book “Total Transition. The Human Side of the Renewable Energy Revolution” (Rocky Mountain Books, 2018) that Sandeep and Savannah co-authored and which was adapted and slightly modified for the Just Transition(s) Online Forum. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the JTRC or its partner organizations.
