Exploring the Impact of Mining on the Precarity of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in Odisha, India

Abstract

Odisha is home to 9.2 percent of India’s scheduled tribe (ST) population and accommodates 62 tribal communities, including 13 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). STs constitute 22.85 percent of the state population, incorporating PVTGs. Tribal areas in the eastern Indian state of Odisha are rich in mineral resources, which serve as locomotives of growth. The state holds a dominant share of India’s mineral resources, comprising 96% chromite, 93% nickel ore, 51% bauxite, 44% manganese, 34% iron ore (haematite), and 24% coal reserves. In the year 2022-23, the value of Odisha’s mineral production stood at INR 50,291 crore, which is 41.9% of the country’s total production. These mineral resources of the state are concentrated in the tribal dominated district of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Koraput, Rayagada, and Kalahandi. Notably, the Sukinda block in Jajpur district, which contains the country’s largest chromite reserve, is also inhabited by a significant tribal population, accounting for over 27% of the total population in the region. Despite the abundance of natural resources in their areas, the tribal remain severely marginalised due to the inescapable dynamics of modern growth and inadequate policy planning. PVTGs among this population are in the most disadvantaged and vulnerable condition. They suffer from the double burden of isolated existence with minimal access to basic infrastructure and social services, as well as resource extraction from their areas. Mining enclaves inhabited by PVTGs become the spaces where promises and perils of an extractive development strategy collide. Extant Indian literature does not specify how spatialisation of precarity takes shape through mining industrialisation for PVTGs. There is a need to make sense of the mineral-based development strategy, which is constituted by and constitutive of spatialisation of tribal precarity. It is also essential to examine how the mining-affected PVTGs exercise the agency to deal with precarity. Based on two case studies of the mining-affected Paudi Bhuyan residing in the Kurmitar iron ore mines and the Birhor residing in the Suknda chromite mines of Odisha, and utilising ethnographic data, the study seeks to capture the intersectionality between mining, precarity, and PVTG agency. Fieldwork was conducted in two phases – from December 2023 to May 2024, and from December 2024 to April 2025. The research methods included observation, extensive household surveys, in-depth key informant interviews, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and open-ended informal conversations with villagers focusing on various socio-political aspects. The study included 93 Birhor and 74 Paudi Bhuyan households residing in the three different mining-affected villages located within 2 km of the mining sites. The mineral-bearing areas in Odisha, inhabited by PVTGs, illustrate an exclusionary development strategy, leading to spaces of relentless accumulation while simultaneously creating precarity in multiple ways. The field findings corroborate that the PVTGs who are somehow ‘in’ but not ‘of’ the mining society are precariously hanging onto casual labour in mining industries and are subject to the conditions and demands set by the mining companies. For instance, the accelerated mechanisation initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the already precarious livelihood conditions of Birhor labourers engaged in loading work. Now they face gender disparity, job insecurity, fluctuating wages, systematic alienation, and a lack of labour protection, leading to uncertain livelihoods. When employment opportunities in the mining industry were scarce, the Birhor often turned to forest-based means of subsistence, such as selling firewood. This approach has also become challenging due to several factors, including restricted access to forests, a shortage of forest products, and intimidation by forest officials. Similarly, the Paudi Bhuyan of the Kurmitar Pahar are steadily losing their traditional shifting cultivation practices due to both mining activities and restrictions imposed by the forest department. These circumstances have led to livelihood uncertainties for the Paudi Bhuyan, as they lack alternative sources of income, and the mining companies show little interest in integrating them into the mining industry. In contrast, when they collectively demand employment from the mining authorities, their efforts are met with state repression, manifested through police intervention aimed at silencing their demands. Mining industrialisation has aggravated the development and democratic challenges faced by PVTGs. Despite their diverse locations, the lives and livelihoods of PVTGs at both sites have been suffering from mining. By examining the variegated ways in which mining industrialisation has affected PVTG communities, the study challenges common understandings of the effects of mining and dispossession. It opens up alternative ways of thinking about the effects of mining industrialisation; the ways in which PVTGs experience precarity and exercise agency to counter it. Tribal experiences and responses to mining industrialisation reveal a much more complex and ambiguous picture than those more commonly painted in the literature. It is neither a picture of tribal uprising nor acquiescence but also of negotiation and alliances, co-option, and brokerage, which may act not to engender resistance but rather constrain it.