India's massive coal importation, spurred by the sector's belief that local coal has poor content and low quality, has led to the unfortunate downsizing of employment in the coal sector.

"This has been creating unemployment in the coal sector. While there is need to increase coal production keeping pace with increasing demand, the companies are busy outsourcing the work, as a result of which coal production has fallen far short of the desired target," INTUC president G Sanjeeva Reddy during the inaugural of the 13th conference of the National Mineworkers' Federation on Saturday.

India is actually a nation which has ample coal reserves, sitting atop 10 per cent of where the world's reserves are located, approximately worth 267 billion tonnes. It would have been easy for the country to acquire this basic commodity. However, most of Indian coal reserves lie in forest areas and cannot be mined due to environmental concerns.

This has prompted India's iron ore producers, steel makers and power producers, among others, to import overseas coal to address domestic supply demands, threatening the very jobs of local coal workers.

INTUC, the trade union wing of the Congress, has been fighting relentlessly for the interest and rights of India's entire workers, including coal workers. He said if the present scenario could not be avoided, a pension scheme should be introduced for the benefit of the coal workers as well as bonus based on full monthly salary.

In the same conference, Rajendra Prasad Singh, former Jharkhand Minister, said the number of workers in India's mining sector has been drastically reduced from seven lakh to about four lakh now.

"These contract workers are the worst sufferers as they were unprotected," he said. These workers should receive and get to enjoy all benefits normally extended to the regular workers.