Social Dimensions Mining Sector

摘要

The expansion of the mining sector in India in the twentieth century has been phenomenal. The value of mineral production has increased from a figure of Rs 10.6croresin 1930ADtoRs62 OOQcroresin2002AD. Since the 1980s, there has been a major change in the method of mining as well as in size of mines. The bulk of minerals is produced these days from large-scale mechanized opencast mines which are worked tip to the depths of even 150 m-200 m. Opencast mining causes great damage to land and in addition needs a lot of land for external overburden dumping. Although the mines need large parcels of land, often causing large-scale displacement of persons, these mechanized opencast mines can provide only a few jobs to the displaced persons. Then there are restrictions on the availability of land imposed by the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980 and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986, The problems of land acquisition for mining, be it under the LA Act 1894 or CBA Act 1957, are examined in this paper. The R&R Policy for displaced persons, as followed by various mining companies is also discussed The importance of community development work by the mining companies as a, way to win the trust of the surrounding community is emphasised along with examples of such work carried out by a number of companies in the country. The implementation of the Indigenous People's Development Programme of the World Bank under ESMP by Coal India has been a unique experience and discussed in this paper. Minerals being a non-renewable resource, a mine gets closed after exhaustion of the mineable deposit. The repercussions of a mine's closure on the surrounding community and the ways to minimise the adverse impacts are discussed. Thus, the paper concludes that for carrying mining activity in the future, adequate attention should be given to the social dimensions of mining.