Inside the Dark Mines
Miners belong to the lowest strata of the society. They also belong to an industry that operates in far flung areas and whose working conditions remain hidden from others. Still worse, a miner’s job is one of the most difficult amongst all the jobs mankind undertakes on the face of the earth – more so in coal mines, and that too in a country like Pakistan. Their life beneath tonnes of earth in dark and suffocating mines remain extremely grueling. More often than not – as there are no safety precautions in place – the mines collapse. These miners thus get buried or undergo slow death out of suffocation, thirst, hunger, or shock. The mines they used to work in sorrowfully become their ultimate resting places – their graves. Occurring at far flung places – and to such a disadvantageous segment of the society – these incidents hardly make to the news headlines. Even though exact numbers are not known, as no one seems to be keeping a track on them in Pakistan, yet dozens of such incidents have taken place in recent years in which hundreds of miners have lost their lives, mostly in remote areas of Baluchistan. Had it been any other country, it would have unleashed a hell. In ours, it passes silently. There are a very few voices raised for these wretched of the earth – that of Nexus being one of them. We continue to lobby for better working conditions and regulatory mechanisms at these mines, and we are committed – if not destined – to make a difference.
