EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF A RAT-HOLE MINER TO DOCTOR

 

Defying the odds Dr. Kamphereiei Pala crawled out from the dark, eerie rat-hole coal mines to the world above to become a healer of the body and soul.

 

“I lost my way in the labyrinth of the rat hole coal mine one winter. I cried and called for help and nobody could hear me and after almost an hour of struggle I was finally rescued,” Dr. Pala who worked as a rat-hole coal miner in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district spoke about his extraordinary struggle.

 

Rat-hole mines are traditional coal mining practice in Meghalaya, India. It involves workers manually digging holes to enter into coal reserves. These holes are barely 3 to 4 feet in diameter and miners can barely crawl in. The miners chisel the coal as they keep digging inside and get the coal out in rudimentary trolley made of wood. 

Several miners have lost their lives in these rat-hole mines. Most of these workers come from economically weak families and some come from far off places like Nepal and remote areas of Assam. 

Meanwhile, now after completion of his MBBS degree from Guwahati Medical College, and working as an intern in the same institute, Dr. Pala recalled: “I have worked as a labourer in many trades, but rat-hole coal mining is the toughest.”

 

Dr. Pala is one of the four children brought up by a single mother, who also worked as a labourer, in Moolamylliang village, East Jaintia Hills district. He said that to pay school fees and also help the family financially he had to work as a rat-hole coal miner and also do other odd jobs.

 

“I had to work right from the time I was in class 4 or 5. I worked in shops, as handyman and many others and then as a coal miner...It pays well and why it shouldn’t, as you have to crawl over 200 meters every day to scrap coal inside a labyrinth of shafts,” Dr. Pala said.

 

The miner tuned doctor isn’t done yet and has a mission before him now. “In our villages early marriage results in broken families and then a cycle of poverty ensues, just like in the case of my family. I want to stop that,” he said.

 

His goal is now to become a pediatrician, so that he can interact directly with mothers and also their families. “I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I believe my calling is from my district where there is poverty and such cases of early marriages and broken families,” he added.

 

Dr. Pala with his mother

Dr. Pala said that in his journey so far, several people including the WeCare foundation founded by BR Medhi, have mentored and helped him financially to pursue his studies. “It doesn’t matter from where you came from, what matters is, where you are going,” Dr. Pala reasoned.