By Debjit Chakraborty

September 2, 2021 - It took nearly 50 years, but the world’s top coal miner Coal India Ltd. finally hired its first woman engineer to work in an underground mine.

Women in India were barred from working in underground mines until as recently as 2019, when the government amended the law, permitting them to work in these areas in a bid to improve female labor participation rates. 

Akanksha Kumari, an engineering graduate from the eastern state of Jharkhand, has joined the company as a mining engineer in the Churi underground mine.

Credit: Central Coalfields Limited

Akanksha Kumari, an engineering graduate from the eastern state of Jharkhand, has joined the company as a mining engineer in the Churi underground mine, unit Central Coalfields Ltd. said in a Twitter post.

Socially conservative India has one of the lowest female labor participation rates on the planet as many women are discouraged from working and pushed into more traditional roles. Women comprise less than a quarter of the labor force and in Coal India, they made up about 7.5% of its workforce.