The Shifting Gender of Coal: Feminist Musings on Women's Work in Indian Collieries

Abstract

This paper investigates the sharp fall in the number of women workers in Indian coal mines, and explores the specificity of women workers in their demands for gender equity. It examines four main factors responsible for the gradual decline in women's participation in Indian collieries: the laws surrounding women's rights to work; the gendered impacts of technology use; the neglect of women workers' needs and interests by the relevant trade unions; and the gender discriminatory attitudes and instruments of the mining companies which have produced a certain kind of ideal worker who is also a gendered being. The paper asserts women's right to mine in order to earn a living, and to demand an equal share in the benefits that mining can offer.