In a first, Tata Steel¡¯s Noamundi Iron Mine in Jharkhand is set to witness an all-women team taking up drilling, dumper, and shovel operations in all shifts from early next year.
Women officers and operators have already been inducted in the Noamundi Iron Mine and it will be the first time in the country that a 30-member team, exclusively comprising women from the rank of officers to operators, will be engaged independently in all the shifts, an official told news agency PTI.
As part of the new initiative, ¡°Women at Mines¡± at the Ore, Mines, and Quarry (OMQ) division of the mine in West Singhbhum district, the first batch of 22 operators of heavy earthmoving machinery (HEMM) will start working independently in all the shifts, Atul Kumar Bhatnagar, General Manager, OMQ Division, Tata Steel, told a group of visiting journalists from Jamshedpur.
The objective behind the initiative, termed ''Tejaswini 2.0'', was to enhance gender diversity in the workplace, particularly in a difficult sector like mining, Bhatnagar said.
The drive was also a step towards empowering local people, the officer said.
¡°The first batch of 22 matric pass women operators, including Rebati Purty, who was a Mukhiya [village chief] of Jampani village under Noamundi block and mother of two daughters, was selected among 350 applicants after a written test and personal interview. Almost all the selected candidates live within a radius of 15 km from the mine,¡± he said.
¡°We have taken undertakings from the parents of the women operators before inducting them in the mining operation,¡± an official said.
The programme has been designed to provide technical training to unskilled women workers and enable them to work in core jobs at mines.
The majority of the operators, coming from conservative tribal families, said they had never even driven a scooter but are now confidently operating HEMM.
¡°Initially, we were very scared to take up the job but gradually gained confidence in the course of training and we are now ready to work independently in all shifts,¡± Purty said.
At OMQ Division, heavy earthmoving machines like excavators, shovels, dumpers are being operated by women employees at Noamundi Iron mine under the ''Tejaswini 2.0'' initiative, Bhatnagar said.
The initiative has also been take in Bokaro mines as well.
Tata Steel has set a target of recruiting 20 per cent women employees of the total workforce by 2025.
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