The world continues to meet its growing energy demands at the expense of under-represented and marginalised workers. While societies benefit from electricity, industry, and economic growth, the miners extracting this energy source often face unsafe working conditions, exposure to toxic gases, inadequate healthcare access, and weak legal protections. In Pakistan, the average reported deaths of the coal miners per year is 300 and these are from the major registered mines only. The actual number of coal miners that die due to the unsafe measures and exploitation by the contractors in over 1500 unregistered coal mines is just a wild guess.

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Pakistan’s coal mines laws are regulated by the Mines Act, 1923 and the provinces have their own mining concession rules, but the implementation remains weak. Most of the mines in Baluchistan are owned by the State and by individual owners as well. These mines are given on lease to the contractors who then further hire the coal miners to work........

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