RATIONALIZING LOSSES IN THE INDIAN COAL INDUSTRY 47 ocassional absence from work becomes a physiological necessity, arising out of the sustained lack of nutrition. The other important issue that has encouraged absenteeism is the ensurance of vital safety within the mines which remains denied to him. The other welfare measures like housing,10 or more importantly, the steps to prevent occupational diseases and/or minimise health hazards, lie unattended. Finally, the motivated nature of the judicial relations pursued by the management jeopardise many of the judicial decisions that could have gone towards amicable solutions, and hence could have lowered the frequency and spread of disturbances which allegedly hinder production. The only positive steps that had been taken by 'the management from time to time11 have been reportedly repressive in nature and have naturally contributed towards a worsening of the situation. The situation that logically emerges from all this is, therefore, a conjunction of rising losses, rising (of coal and other commodities') prices and a declining economic status of labour. The resultant is a redistribution of incomes in the form of non-commercial pricing of coal for the user$ in the private sector, and a revision of the capital-labour ratio in favour of the former. The puzzling, yet obvious question, is to determine exactly who suffers from such losses and in -whose interest they are being incurred. The answer to this lies in the entire configuration of vested interests which operate within their own hierarchical standings. Taken in that sense, the answers to the questions are largely axiomatic, and of course, ridiculously simple. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. Those who count the number of strikes in aggregate, around 500, and the loss of mandays, forget that the coal industry is spread over more than 500 mines, employing more than six lakh people and stretched over one-third of the country. In 1982-83, as per the Report of the Ministry of Energy (Department of Coal) loss of production due to strike was 0.35 million tonnes, due to absenteeism 1.29 million tonnes and 3.8 million tonnes due to shortage of power. According to the Pocket Book of Labour Statistics, 1984, published by the Union Labour Ministry, the intensity of labour unrest-mandays lost per person was least in coal mining compared to any of the major employment sector of the economy.' A.K. Roy, 'Cleaning the Coalfields, Limitations of the Gujral way'. Economic and Political Weekly, 29 September 1984. 2. C.P. Simons, 'Recruiting and Organising an Industrial Labour force in Colonialism', Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol. XII, No. 4, October-December 1976. 3. D.K. Sinha, 'Scientific Approach to Planning in Coal Mining', Journal of Mines, Metals and Fuels, September 1975. 4. Given the perennial shortage of liquid cash, it is not unnatural that 60 per cent of the coal miners remain heavily indebted (see for instance. The Economic Times, 26 April 1975; and The Telegraph, 29 September 1983). In conformity with the general character of rural indebtedness in India, the miners also borrow in kind, and most of such borrowings are in the form of essential consumption items, which are obtained on credit from particular shops in the locality. Such a necessity to procure the essential items on credit creates a kind of bondage, whereby the seller enjoys monopolistic powers and is able to charge higher than the locally prevailing market prices As such, any general price rise is likely to have a palpably greater pressure on the real earnings of the miners.