ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the impact of neoliberal industrial strategies like outsourcing in the coal sector on the livelihood of the local people. It attempts to explore the political economy of coal production in the neoliberal era and revisits the meaning of rural as existing at the fringes of industrial towns. The chapter argues that the government, in endorsing outsourcing, attempts to tackle the problem of labour aristocracy as well as the fall in coal production. However, this move has ultimately led to the death of labour politics causing a huge setback to labour welfare. Another major finding is that the mafia elements previously dominating the trade union politics have evolved to be the contractors of the outsourced works. Contractual workers now employed in the mines are adversely affected as they receive lesser than the statutory salary, work for longer hours and are denied benefits available to their organised counterparts.
