ToI said that according to a report of the Director General of Mines Safety 340,000 Coal India production workers who prise the black gold out from its earthbound seams and make it ready for use often pay with their lives because coal mining is one of the most dangerous occupations.
Since 1901, 23128 workers have died in coal mines
Of these 9880 died before independence.
By the time coal mining was nationalized in 1972 another 5550 had died.
Since the government took over the reins a further 7698 have perished.
In addition nearly 25000 workers have been injured in serious accidents since 1951.
Meanwhile output per man shift has increased almost tenfold from about 0.35 tonnes in 1951 to 3.4 tonnes in 2006.
These figures are significant. Against so many deaths there has never been action against the Coal India brass. Let alone the chairman or its board of directors even petty officials have rarely been punished. A suspension maybe, but nothing more. It's quite a counter-point to the knee-jerk arrests of AMRI Hospital directors who are unlikely to have been involved in the day-to-day running of the hospital.
The mining industry calculates deaths in a different way how many deaths per million tonnes of coal taken out annually. According to an Asian Development Bank report in 2003-04 India had a fatality rate of 0.4 million tonne per year. This was ten times more than the rate in the US and Australia but one-tenth that of China and Ukraine. The rate of fatal accidents has not dropped over the last five years.
There has been a decline in deaths and serious injuries over the years but the life of these workers comes cheap for coal mining corporates. According to data collected by the Bureau of Labour Statistics of the US government Indian coal mine workers are the lowest paid among the top coal producing nations. They got an average hourly wage of USD 0.63 in 2005 the last year for which data from several countries is available. Compare this to Brazil's USD 48.25 or Australia's USD 53.11 or the US's USD 36.22. China paid about USD 0.91 per hour.
(Sourced from TOI)
