India is among the largest producers of coal, iron ore, bauxite, zinc and mica. As the country’s energy sector transitions to meet its net zero commitment, it is expected to trigger major changes in its mining sector and strategy. Coal is expected to gradually decline in importance.
About 299 metal mines have been identified as abandoned, discontinued, or closed (so far) by the Ministry of Coal. Coal India Ltd has taken proactive steps towards the closure of these mines.
The closure of coal mines is expected to impact around 500,000 jobs/livelihoods and around 100,000 hectares of land and associated natural resources.
With this background, the Ashoka Centre for a People- centric Energy Transition (ACPET) commissioned a project to “facilitate smooth transition of coal mining communities towards sustainable lives and livelihoods”.
The objective of the project is to study, develop and demonstrate approaches to facilitate smooth transitioning of mining communities towards sustainable lives and livelihoods.
The project seeks to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and affected groups to:
Understand socio-economic impacts of mine closure
Analyse and feed into the mine closure strategies and policies
Chalk out people-centric mine closure approaches and interventions
Inform policy discourse
Who are affected by mine closure?
In what ways are they affected ?
What support systems do they have ?
How were the aspirations and expectations of the community and the people impacted?
What approaches or interventions could reduce or avoid the negative fallouts on them?
The site-specific primary research survey project used a mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) approach to document the impacted communities- the nature of this impact, their needs and aspirations, and what needs to be done at the community and individual level to support the said transition sustainably. As a part of this process, the team first undertook a formative research visit to understand the sites, interact with the mine dependent communities, the impacts they have faced due to coal mine discontinuity, and ascertain the different groups of people who were most affected - directly or indirectly. This helped the team to design the survey tools. Following this, a detailed survey was conducted along with analysis and reporting. The first stage of the project, including the survey has been concluded, and a varied list of recommendations for interventions has been drawn out; a few of these will be selected at the community and individual level for demonstration.
Literature review: Reports by peers, international experiences, Indian mine closure policies and plans.
Discussions with CMPDIL, World Bank, Coal Controller of India, Ministry of Coal, Just Transition Task Force, etc.
Qualitative and quantitative surveys and co-designing of interventions: The primary survey (designing the research, quantitative and qualitative data collection through visits at the project sites, analysis and reporting) was carried out among communities affected by coal mine closure, and stakeholders from mining company, labour unions, local NGOs, relevant government departments, District Mineral Foundation and district administration.
Demonstration of a few selected interventions and impact evaluations of the same.
Policy recommendations
The project site for the study is the currently discontinued Rajhara coal mines, a colliery of the Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), located in the Daltonganj Coalfield of Jharkhand. The mine was first shut in 2010, due to inundation of the mines, reopened in 2019 after receiving environmental clearance and then discontinued due to land acquisition and other local issues. The site is specifically chosen to understand the layered impact of mine closure on communities linked to these mines.
A report highlighting the significance of People Centric Mine Closure Policy recommendations – both at central and state level – for sustainable and
impactful mine closure; suggested inputs to existing mine closure frameworks Field demonstration pilots and its impact evaluation.Here are the reports :
Partners for site selection, field work facilitation and data collection
local support and research delivery partner
Survey partner
Project Team: Mr. Vaibhav Chowdhary, Director, ACPET (PI)
Ms. Sharmistha Baig (Core Team), Dr Anindya Sinha (Project Advisor)
Mr. Animesh Ghosh (Research Fellow, Core Team)
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