Rs200: The worth of a miner’s life

Khewra miners continue to be exploited.

KHEWRA:

As the miner picks away at the gypsum, hundreds of metres below the surface, a tiny ray of light serves as a constant reminder that Rs200 wait for him when he resurfaces.

He gets Rs140 for extracting one ton of gypsum, which the owner sells at Rs630 in the market. The mine owner also deducts the cost of explosives from this wage. Laws that govern workers elsewhere have never been applied here. As a result the average miner must live on Rs6,000 or less per month. He has to brave all kinds of hazards without any security equipment, because the owner would not pay for it and he simply cannot afford it.

A helmet costs Rs250 - an amount the average miner just cannot spare. The 50-year-old Muhammad Riaz who has been working in a mine for the last 41 years, said that throughout his life he never earned more than Rs6,000 a month. He said, “How is it possible for me to purchase the expensive safety instruments?”

The gypsum miner has no medical cover nor is he provided meals during working hours. This barely leaves the miner less than a couple of hundred rupees to pay for his and his family’s food and shelter. The authorities are aware of this exploitation but keep quiet when the labour laws are cited in favour of the workers.

The labourers work under dangerous conditions unprotected by safety measures. There were seven fatalities last year on account of accidents.

Muhammad Ramzan, whose son lost his life in a gypsum quarry a few months ago, said that his son was the only earning member of the family. Ramzan himself had he lost his leg in a gypsum mine. To date the victim’s family has not been compensated by any lessee of the government department.

Abdur Rehman, a labour representative, said that the monsoon exacerbates financial worries as the salt water sweeps into nearby fields raising salinity and affecting the produce. Even drinking water is contaminated.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2011.