With mining, the promise of development or a transition to a better life has never been realised for these women, writes Padma Shri Sudharak olwe.
Photographs : Kirty Marodia, Aparna olwe, Nirman chowdhrury, Sudharak olwe
Our photography workshop site turned into a less alluring sight amid the ancient forts of Rajasthan as there also exists stone quarries in all shapes and sizes where hundreds of workers are working in the very same pathetic conditions as our ancestors did, carving and processing stone manually, with hammers and chisels to the extent that they have lost their fingerprints.
As we landscaped the Bundi district, we were welcomed with open-pit mines and quarries which dot the arid landscape. Along with hundreds of workers ‘women’ caught our attention vividly due to their dire conditions most of them were working in.
Rajasthan’s sandstone quarries or mines show serious labour and social issues including child labour, low wages, wage discrimination, bonded labour, unsafe working conditions and absence of freedom of association.
With mining, the promise of development or a transition to a better life has never been realized for these women. The only transition they have witnessed in their lives is the successive deaths of their husbands, sons, brothers and other family members, from mining-associated diseases and then these women have to go there to survive to pay off debts passed on to them by their husbands or fathers.
Women miners as we spoke to a few of them, happen to be relegated to the lowest paying jobs: sorting debris, chiseling stones with bare hands and hammer, carrying head-loads and working as transport labour on a piece-rate basis.
There have been so many cases where women who delivered a baby and within a week were back to work in the mines along with their infants which was a horrifying sight for us to witness and still haunts us.
There have been so many cases where women who delivered a baby and within a week were back to work in the mines along with their infants which was a horrifying sight for us to witness and still haunts us.
Over and top of that, basic facilities such as toilets and water do not exist, nor do safety procedures or compensation for accidents. Rajasthan’s sandstone quarries or mines show serious labour and social issues including child labour, low wages, wage discrimination, bonded labour, unsafe working conditions and absence of freedom of association.
It remains to be seen if the state government’s interest in the prevention of Silicosis will find its feet to truly defend the life of its citizens.
Most workers in sandstone quarries are low-caste migrants who are indebted to their employers and work under conditions of bonded labour. Child labour is reported as a common phenomenon in sandstone quarries and cobble making, especially when made in home units.
It remains to be seen if the state government’s interest in the prevention of Silicosis will find its feet to truly defend the life of its citizens.
