From informal workers to social security- just transition in coal districts is a tough row to hoe

 A majority of workers employed in old mines are informal workers|Photo: Amir Arabshahi by Unsplash

With complex social and economic scenarios, energy transition is a major need for India. But it is equally difficult to make this transition equitable.

According to a recent study, close to 40% of districts in India have some form of coal dependency. They are either home to coal workers or pensioners, or collect District Mineral Foundation (DMF) revenues, or have benefitted from Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) spending, the study says.

A report by International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST) also shows that there are 120 districts (out of the 718 districts) in the country with a sizable presence of fossil fuel or fossil fuel-dependent industries. It emphasizes that policy and planning for transition in the coal sector should be prioritised from a just transition perspective.

To boost India's ambition to reduce carbon emissions, more and more states are now committed to investing in no new coal-fired projects. But for two coal-rich states, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, under the energy transition, many questions arise before adopting renewable energy by abandoning coal-generated power -What will be the future of crores of daily wage labourers working in coal plants? How could workers be trained for this change in their employment? How to achieve an economically beneficial solution of implementing a just transition?

To answer these questions Carboncopy organized a webinar on Wednesday. The webinar was attended by Srestha Banerjee, Director of Just Transition, at iFOREST, Shweta Narayan, Global Climate & Health Campaigner at Health Care Without Harm, and Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Fellow at CEEW. The session was moderated by senior journalist Hridayesh Joshi.

Informal workers- a major concern in just transition

Talking specifically about Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, Banerjee said that the biggest problem in these two states is that the coal areas are situated at such locations where the poverty level is high and social infrastructure is extremely bad. Particularly in Jharkhand, there are many old coal mines approximately more than 100 years old engaging a lot of workers, she adds. Lakhs of people are completely dependent on coal for their livelihood. However, a majority of workers employed in these old mines are informal workers, she says.

There is a large unorganized labour force in Jharkhand- almost three times that of organized workers, she stresses. Since there is no inventory of these informal workers it would be a daunting task to plan reskilling and retraining of these workers for just transition, says Banerjee.

“The biggest problem in equitable energy conversion in a large country like India,” she says, “is how we will compensate informal workers (without any inventory) dependent on the coal economy when they lose their jobs”.

Banerjee states that the average monthly income of a family of at least five members of workers in the unorganized sector does not exceed Rs 10,000. “According to the 'Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index', more than 50% of the population in coal-economy states is poor. They have neither basic facilities for education nor health. When we talk about coal transition, we have to first deal with the multifaceted problems of coal daily wage workers,” she says.

Speaking about the development of primary sectors like agriculture, fisheries and forestry near coal areas, the director says that these sectors are highly neglected in coal districts as the state’s GDP is highly reliant on coal. Moreover, unfavourable conditions like low water table and acidic soil are not suitable for agriculture in many areas close to coal mines.

“Undo the historic injustice”

While a lot has been said about transformation, more focus should be on the impact of coal mines on the environment and who will compensate for it, says Narayan. She stressed on the need to give priority to the expectations of the people in the process of equitable transformation of energy and fix accountability for the damage caused by coal.

“In all the health studies we have conducted in the coal sector, it has been found that malnutrition is the highest among all mining-related areas. If development is taking place then it is very important to ask the question- who will bear the cost of the safety of people who work in coal mines?”

There is no talk about what provisions are being made regarding social security, she emphasizes, questioning, how will the marginalization of the social system be compensated?

The coal industry is a 'parasitic' type of industry and from a social perspective, there is a lot of caste discrimination, she says. “In just transition, we have to undo the historic injustice we did while building coal-based power systems”

Transition to low carbon economy is economic transformation

CEEW Fellow Vaibhav Chaturvedi, while referring to the economic aspects related to just transition, said that transition to low carbon economy is literally economic transformation.

Terming just transition as a good opportunity, Vaibhav said, “I strongly believe that in every crisis lies an opportunity. Just transition is a crisis but it also has opportunities. In just transition, we are talking 40-50 years ahead. Certainly, the picture of India's future will be completely different at that time” he says.

According to an estimate quoted by him, even with economic growth of 5.5% between 2015 and 2065 the per capita income will be around $14000 by 2065. Currently, the per capita income is $2000.

To achieve the target of net-zero, Chaturvedi suggests reducing the share of fossil fuels in total energy generation to less than 5%.