Coal Miners Day in India Date in the current year: May 4, 2024

The history of coal mining dates back to ancient China and the Roman Empire, but it was during the Industrial Revolution that coal production became really important, since people began to use coal to power steam engines, generate electricity, and heat buildings.

In 1774, the East India Company commenced commercial exploitation of India’s extensive coal reserves in Bengal. However, the initial growth of the industry remained slow until the introduction of steam locomotives and the construction of the first railways in the mid-19th century, which significantly boosted the demand for coal. In the late 19th century, Indians began to establish their own collieries in Bengal, Behar and Odisha, breaking the British monopoly.

India produced an average of 1 million metric tons of coal per year in the 1850s, over 6 million metric tons in 1900, and around 18 million metric tons in 1920. Coal production slumped after World War I, but began to rise again during World War II. In 1946, for example, India produced 30 million metric tons of coal.

Following India’s independence, the Planning Commission in the Government of India introduced the Five-Year Plans to boost the country’s economy, and annual coal production rose to 33 million metric tons per year. By the mid-1950s, the majority of the country’s coal industry was controlled by state-owned companies, but private collieries existed as well.

In the early 1970s, the Government of India made a decision to nationalize private coal mines because of flawed mining practices and poor working conditions in some of them. Coking coal mines were nationalized in 1971–1972, and the rest of the private coal mines were nationalized in 1973. The denationalization of coal mines in India began in 2015.

As of late 2019, India ranked third by anthracite and bituminous coal reserves and fifth by total coal reserves (anthracite, bituminous, subbituminous, and lignite). Coal deposits are primarily found in the states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhatisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Maharashtra.

India is the world’s second biggest coal producer, after China; it produces over 700 million metric tons of coal per year. The largest coal consumers in the country are the electricity sector, the steel industry, the sponge iron industry, and the cement industry. Despite the high amount of coal being produced in India, it has poor average quality, so the country has to import high quality coal for is steel plants.

Coal Miners Day was established to highlight the importance of the coal industry and the contribution of coal miners to the country’s economy. Coal mining is one of the most dangerous activities, and in many countries, miners are overworked and underpaid. Indian Coal Miners Day is designed to raise awareness of the challenges that coal miners face every day and to honor the memory of the miners who died in mining accidents or succumbed to diseases caused by long-term exposure to coal dust.