Doubling: How it is impoverishing a mining community in India

The wide availability of minerals provides a base for the growth and development of the mining sector in India, with coal playing a distinctive role. Despite the adverse environmental and social externalities, the coal-bearing states seek to maximise their mineral revenues. However, these revenues may not always translate into unmitigated benefits for the local communities. This paper attempts to highlight an emerging issue in the Indian mining sector—that of an informal kind of local financing, referred to as “doubling,” and how it affects the community. Insights are drawn from field visits (including consultation workshops, focus group discussions, and immersive discussions) to nine mining villages in the Basundhara area of Sundargarh district in Odisha, a state in eastern India, rich in mineral deposits. The study found that doubling enriches the wealthy lenders and impoverishes the poor borrowers, results in mortal threats issued to the borrower in the event of non-repayment, and disrupts social cohesion within local communities, in terms of the dilemma of whether to accept or reject compensation from mining companies. The study concludes that doubling, an illegal and unethical loan contract, signifies an aspect of the socio-economic mismanagement within mining communities.