Human amenities and post-colonial welfares: An Indian coalfield,1946–1972

Abstract

This article elaborates on the new wellbeing discourse developed from the mid-1940s that concerned itself with providing human amenities to mineworkers to improve their health, morale, and, in turn, efficiency on the Indian coal mines. This wellbeing practice brought about new institutional machinery, called Coal Mines Labour Welfare Organisation, which was jointly managed by the representatives of the state, organised labour and colliery management since 1946. The wellbeing practice prioritised the issue of housing, drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, crèche, canteen, education and awareness campaign. Some of these measures registered impressive advancement while others remained more on paper with actual provision of the above taking much longer. Mineworkers saw that the record of human amenities as a whole was insufficient, unsatisfactory and half-hearted during 1946 to 1972. The financial anxiety and unfavourable social priority of labour-intensive colliery firms, on one side, and the humane desire of workers and the promise of state welfare were at loggerheads. This manifested in the problem of allocation of funds and its improper utilisation, anxiety-related to the material cost, and the very loophole in the ‘protective’ labour laws.