In Meghalaya State in Northeast India the hills are perforated with deep black holes and trucks have etched red veins into the soil. Megahalaya is the second-biggest coal-producing area in the country and of vital importance to the continuous growth of the nation, already the World’s third-largest coal-producer after the US and China.
While experts debate whether India will overtake China financially, it is certain, that within 25-40 years India will be the most populous country in the world. But still with an ever-increasing work force, the vast majority of the coal workers in Meghalaya are migrants, either from the poorer Indian states like Bihar or West Bengal or from Bangladesh and Nepal.
The work in the mines is hard and dangerous, but at around 75 to a high 100 USD per week, the pay is good enough to overshadow the health risks and months spent away from home.
No official statistics on mining accidents exist in Meghalaya State, where all of the mines are privately run, small scale operations as opposed to the state run mines in the rest of the country. But one worker conveyed that in seven years of working in the mines in Meghalaya he has witnessed four fatal tunnel collapses, killing six miners, which is why he will only allow himself and his 17-year-old son to work in the relatively safe shaft carrying the coal to the surface. On flimsy bamboo ladders they carry coal baskets weighing up to 60 kg – in a day it can add up to 3.5 tons of coal.
