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In India, '''coal mining women''' were common in the early 20th century, increasingly regulated from 1929, prohibited from mines in 1937 and reinstated in 1943. The prohibition was reinstated in 1946 and later lifted in 2019.

The earliest Indian women to be employed in [[coal mine]] related work were the [[Bauris]], [[Dhangars]] and Koras, and were chiefly involved with surface work. With the advent of [[Indian railways]], the [[Santal people|Santhal Parganas]] women became the first women to work inside the [[Raniganj Coalfield|coal mines of Raniganj]], alongside their men folk. By the end of the [[First World War]] 49,500 women worked in underground mines. Between August 1943 and February 1946, during the [[Bengal famine of 1943|Bengal famine]] and [[Second World War]], most worked in the eastern provinces of [[Bengal]] and [[Bihar]], numbered around 70,000, and sustained production of [[coal]].

In 2021 Akanksha Kumari became the first woman mining engineer to work in an underground mine in India.

==Before 1900==
[[File:Raniganj Coalfield 1867.jpg|thumb|right|Raniganj Coalfield in 1867]]
The earliest Indian women to be employed in Indian [[coal mine]] related work were the [[Bauris]], [[Dhangars]] and Koras, and were chiefly involved with surface work, with some working in open mines and [[quarry|quarries]], where they carried an average of 50 to 60lbs of weight.<ref name=Athar1012>{{cite journal |last1=Athar |first1=Shakeeb |title=Condition of women workers in Bihar til 1947 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |date=2012 |volume=73 |pages=932–940 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156291 |issn=2249-1937|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Other work delegated to women in open mines included carrying material up inclines. They were also involved in taking out coal and waste from the [[headframe|pit head]] and stacking the coal.<ref name=Athar1012/> The Bauri women came to be known as the "gin-women" as they were tasked with turning the wooden 'gin' (a sort of modified [[whim (mining)|horse gin]]), for lifting coal from the pits using iron chains.<ref name=Athar1012/> A description of Bauri women workers at the [[Raniganj Coalfield|Raniganj coal mines]], given by a Mrs Bental, reported that "the women are also best for turning the windlass that lifts the buckets at the shafts, 32 of them at once work the wheel with a peculiar spring or jump forwards and then a run, they sing all the while but in wild harsh tone. The Scotch engineer told us that these women are quarrelsome and more troublesome than the men and one of his punishments was a short lock up in a godown warehouse".<ref name=Athar1012/> As mines became mechanised by electric and steam [[winding engine]]s, gin women were redirected to screen, load and push wagon filled coal to the railway sides.<ref name=Athar1012/> Some were tasked to remove boiler ash, push unloaded coal and sprinkle water on coal.<ref name=Athar1012/>

With the advent of [[Indian railways]], the [[Santal people|Santhal Parganas]] women became the first women to work inside the coal mines of Raniganj, alongside their men folk.<ref name=Athar1012/> There, they would load the coal cut by their men.<ref name=Athar1012/> Some bailed water from the mines and removed coal from the galleries.<ref name=Athar1012/> Most were of low caste, and among those of high castes were mainly widows without financial support, socially isolated or from poor families.<ref name=Athar1012/> By the turn of the 20th century, there was a total of around 18,500 women working underground and 9,400 on the surface.<ref name=Athar1012/>

==First World War==
During the [[First World War]], the number of coal mines in India rose by more than 300 and production increased from 16 million to 20 millions tons.<ref name=Athar1012/> 49,500 women worked in underground mines by the end of the War.<ref name=Athar1012/>

==Interwar years==
The Indian Mining Act (1923) discouraged the sending of women down coal mines; it was seen as dangerous and unfit work for women.<ref name=Athar1012/> The mining regulations of 1929 resulted in the already low paid women being employed in less numbers and with less pay.<ref name=Athar1012/> They were completely prohibited from mines in 1937.<ref name=Athar1012/>

==Second World War==
Permitting women back in Indian coal mines was reinstated in 1943 during the [[Bengal famine of 1943|Bengal famine]] and [[Second World War]].<ref name=Khaitan2020>{{cite journal |last1=Khaitan |first1=Urvi |title=Women beneath the Surface: Coal and the Colonial State in India during the Second World War |journal=War & Society |date=2 July 2020 |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=171–188 |doi=10.1080/07292473.2020.1790473 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07292473.2020.1790473 |issn=0729-2473|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Between August 1943 and February 1946 most worked in the eastern provinces of [[Bengal]] and [[Bihar]], numbered around 70,000, and sustained production of [[coal]].<ref name=Khaitan2020/> These women included Somi Bowri, who went to live her husband at age 14 years, two years after they married.<ref name=Khaitan2021>{{cite web |last1=Khaitan |first1=Urvi |title=Unheard and Unseen: Mining Women in British India |url=https://socialhistory.org.uk/shs_exchange/unheard-and-unseen/ |website=The Social History Society |access-date=18 November 2022 |date=13 July 2021}}</ref> They had seven children and entered the coalfields in their mid-thirties after being driven by a reduced income from their traditional farming work.<ref name=Khaitan2021/> Another was Radhi Domin, widowed at age eight after being married at two, she then married a widower at age 16 and both worked as manual labourers in coal mines.<ref name=Khaitan2021/>

==Post war==
In 1946, the prohibition of employing Indian women in coal mines was reinstated.<ref name=Khaitan2021/>

==21st century==
In February 2019, the prohibition on women working in coal mines was lifted.<ref name=Khaitan2021/> In 2021 [[Akanksha Kumari]] became the first woman mining engineer to work in an underground mine in India.<ref name=Ec2021>{{cite news |title=Glass ceiling shatters again in coal industry, Shivani Meena becomes 1st woman excavation engineer at CCL open cast mine |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/glass-ceiling-shatters-again-in-coal-industry-shivani-meena-becomes-1st-woman-excavation-engineer-at-ccl-open-cast-mine/articleshow/86096544.cms |access-date=18 November 2022 |work=The Economic Times |date=10 September 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Bevin Boys]]
* [[Kamini Roy]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite web |title=Unheard and Unseen: Mining Women in British India |url=https://socialhistory.org.uk/shs_exchange/unheard-and-unseen/ |website=The Social History Society |access-date=23 November 2022 |date=13 July 2021}}

[[Category:British Indian history]]
[[Category:1943 in India]]
[[Category:British Empire in World War II]]
[[Category:Bengal Presidency]]
[[Category:India in World War II]]

Indian coal mining women - Revision history

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