What the ‘Rat-Hole Miners’ of Uttarakhand Hope For Is Beyond Hero-Worship

Munna Qureshi has vertigo in small, confined areas. The walls of the small, congested tunnel reflect the heat and fumes from the gas cutters. He gets excited in small, dim areas, such as the one he often finds himself in. Not even the fragments of light erupting from the gas cutters’ flames can be of assistance. He is in danger of harm from the flames, and the fumes cause him to gasp for breath.

Munna, 33, and other rat-hole miners face tremendous hazards when they descend to a depth of up to fifteen meters below the surface, utilizing a frail three-to-four-foot pipe as their sole means of access. It’s a doorway that, in the past, has also served as a little coffin for a great number of rat-hole miners.

remaining month, hopes were banked on rat-hole miners like Munna to excavate the remaining remnants of the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel after every effort—including the commissioning of a costly Auger drill machine—failed. On November 12, the tunnel collapsed, imprisoning 41 workers for 17 days. When the state’s resources ran out, it took 12 rat-hole miners from Muslim and Dalit communities in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to retrieve them.

Living fifteen meters below the surface to clear sewage and garbage is a hazardous and gloomy place to live. Munna, a participant in the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel rescue mission, describes how it feels like a “heavy load has been taken off our backs” as the first sunbeams reach their bodies after they emerge from the little, dark tunnel. He claims that living on the surface is safe.

The terror of having to complete a “do or die” assignment overwhelmed Munna and Waqeel Hassan, 45, as they dropped down the 80-cm diameter pipe shoved into the wreckage at the Uttarakhand accident site. Ten meters of rubble separated them from the 41 imprisoned men, the aspirations of a country, and the relatives of the tunnellers who were trapped. The 12 rat-hole miners’ bravery was motivated by a single idea. Munna remembers, “We have to do this for our mazdoor (worker) brothers.”

With their chisels and shovels in perfect time, Munna and the others would not even stop to plow through the rubble, crouching and almost bending out of shape. Munna’s pulse raced at the first hint of breath from the other side when they eventually dug and scraped through the debris. The miners working the rat holes realized they had succeeded. The stranded miners realized they were at last safe.

Rat-hole mining was outlawed in 2014 by the National Green Tribunal because of its risks. Nonetheless, this dangerous practice—which is still common in Meghalaya’s coal mines—is brought to light by the recent rescue in Uttarakhand. In rat-hole mining, miners build slender tunnels that put them in danger while using laborious, cruel, and unproven procedures. These illicit, unchecked operations in Meghalaya go a few hundred feet below the surface and often result in unreported miner fatalities. Roughly 225 rat-hole miners are said to have perished in Meghalaya between 2007 and 2014 before the practice was outlawed because to its substantial contribution to environmental instability.

Although the work on the tunnel rescue had nothing to do with coal, it did “mine” interest in the rat-hole mining method, which led to the completion of one of the longest and most challenging rescue operations in Indian history.

Lt. General Syed Ata Hasnain, a former National Disaster Management Authority member, was questioned shortly after the rescue over the usage of the forbidden rat-hole mining method. He distinguished between the utilization of a “rat-hole miner’s talent and experience” during the rescue mission and the illegality of rat-hole mining.

“Kaam nahin hai acchha”

It’s not referred to as “rat-hole mining.” When Poonam Chauhan, the BJP’s North East Delhi District President, visited Waqeel Hassan and six other Delhi-based rat-hole miners participating in the Uttarakhand operation, he was clearly exhausted and said, “Yeh toh media bata rahe (that’s what the media is saying).” He continues, “We call it manual jack pushing.”

None of the rat-hole miners who had previously participated in coal production were participating in the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel rescue operation. However, their ability to tunnel for gas, water, and sewage lines also required them to crawl down three-foot-wide tunnels without taking ergonomics or safety into account. Munna has spent the previous fifteen years doing this as well.

According to 45-year-old Mohammad Irshad, their mining process is similar to a rat excavating a hole.

Rats excavate the earth and then shovel it back. That’s what we carry out. When the people on the surface take it out, we dig, push, and penetrate. Irshad, a tunnel worker originally from Meerut, has been working on tunnels since 2001. He relocated to Sri Ram Colony in Delhi six years ago. For pipeline construction, Munna, Waqeel, Irshad, and others must crawl 15 feet long and three feet broad every day.

At the age of 35, Mohammad Naseem began this effort over ten years ago. Every day was a struggle against terror. “What happens if I’m unable to exit that tunnel? He says, “Would anyone look for me?”

There is no training needed for rat-hole mining, and when individuals are sent down, no competence is taken into account. “You follow someone to the field, where you spend days watching the laborers enter and exit tunnels. It’s your time once you absorb their methods, adds Waqeel. “This work is not good, Yeh kaam acchha nahin hai,” he moans.

Firoz Qureshi, who was born in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh, almost exactly agrees with Waqeel when he describes the internal struggle he often has while weighing the benefits and drawbacks of his line of work. “I’m not sure whether this is a job I should take or one I should avoid. “I shouldn’t complain since it provides food on the table, but it also comes with dangers, hazards, and worst of all, financial exploitation,” he states.

Battle at Every Step

Employees in a convoluted and unfair corporate structure are always fighting for their rights. The first step is to get a contract job. The next challenge is to provide a rare safe work environment. According to Firoz, the ideal setup would include an oxygen blower, safety boots, a helmet for tunnel safety, and reassurance for their families in the event of an emergency. Regretfully, many miners can only dream of such safety precautions.

Promised salaries are seldom kept, despite their difficult work in which injury or death is always a second away.

“For two to three weeks, we need to be making between Rs. 500 and Rs. 800 a day. These days, labor contractors or “middlemen” take the majority of it. We would ultimately get Rs 200 out of the Rs 500. With this sum, how do you hope to maintain a livelihood? Irshad queries.

Violation of Rights

Prafulla Samantara, an environmental campaigner, highlights how uncontrolled tunneling endangers both nature and vulnerable populations. “We must always start by asking why we need them to perform such work.” Samantara highlights how certain castes and classes are often the targets of exploitation in the workplace. He claims that because of their circumstances, “the social structure forces them to accept risks as forced laborers with little dignity.”

When one examines the state of affairs in Meghalaya, where laborers are brought in from Bangladesh, Assam, Nepal, and other places and employed as rat-hole miners, his remarks take on more relevance.

Given how simple it is for them to enter the little tunnels, the majority of the workers here are minors, according to Meghalayan women’s rights and anti-mining campaigner Agnes Kharsiing.

Human rights violations in Meghalaya’s Jaintia Hills have reportedly occurred on a regular basis. Long hours are worked by children, which is against Article 23 of the Indian Constitution.

Deep underground excavation is a common result of illegal mining, which is sometimes known as “trespassing properties.” Meghalaya social activist Angela Rangad observes that people don’t know what goes on underneath their houses. “Houses have developed cracks as a result of uncontrolled environmental damage,” she claims.

Mining and tunneling often result in the leaking of acidic discharge into neighboring rivers, harming marine life and rendering the water unsuitable for human consumption. During monsoon season, these tunnels often fill with water, killing the workers below. They claim that mining has aided in economic growth, tribal subsistence, and job prospects. But at what cost do we forget? More environmental deterioration, ecological upheaval, and biological diversity have resulted from it, says Rangad.

Untrained tunnel workers run the danger of dying and harming the environment. According to Qureshi, instruments might puncture pipes, resulting in hazardous circumstances and water spills. He believes it’s unusual to survive.

There is no training needed for rat-hole mining, and when individuals are sent down, no competence is taken into account.

A hollow Festivity

Munna jokes, “Nothing has come through yet,” amid promises of many incentives for the rat-hole miners who solved the Silkyara-Barkot tunnel rescue mission. If they have promised to give us money in return, I hope it does.

Each rat-hole miner involved in the rescue effort will get Rs 50,000 from Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, while Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav offered a prize of Rs one lakh. None has gotten it as of December 7.

Recently, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal allegedly contacted, congratulated, and even posed for pictures with the city’s rat-hole miners. But according to the rat-hole miners Outlook spoke with, Kejriwal had never met them and the invitation was only meant to make headlines. With whom did he meet? “None of us are in that picture,” Waqeel remarks, raising the question of whether his faith in Islam had a role.

Disrespect Ignored

The workers’ greatest want is a life of dignity, not money. The entrance to Sri Ram Colony’s pathways and alleyways is marked with pieces of destroyed housing. Since 2014, the jhuggi has seen many “bulldozings,” the most recent of which occurred a few months ago. Shabana, Waqeel’s wife and former parlor owner of ten years, looks at the damaged tiles on her floor. She claims: “Bulldozers repeatedly destroyed my parlor. I dread another destruction, but I want to rebuild. They refer to us as illegal settlers, so how can they expect us to vote for them?

For the last four years, Shabana’s home has been without power; the DDA turned it off during a 2019 demolition. She currently uses solar energy. The miners in rat holes need a steady supply of water and a clean environment. They fight for water every morning even though they are just four kilometers away from the Yamuna Vihar Water Tank.

They want their kids to choose education over “rat-hole mining” and tunneling as a career. Qureshi, who has three little children, is certain that the government should be in charge of government-run schools. He cites the example of the run-down Khajouri Khas Primary School as evidence, claiming it destroys the chances for his children’s education.

“We can’t stand to think of our kids endangering their lives by going into dark tunnels. They question whether their lack of resources, access to education, and social structure will force them into mazdoori.

A list of those involved in the rescue mission began to spread on social media around two hours after the operation. The identities of the twelve rat-hole miners who worked for hours were noticeably missing. The miners assert that festivities do not alter the reality that Indian laborers are impoverished and always will be.

“Once the light from the media fades, we also disappear from people’s memories,” agree Irshad, Firoz, Munna, and Waqeel. “We’ll return, scuttling through shadowy passageways, and fulfill our obligations.”