From the dark holes of coal mines to the world of medicine
Rat-hole mining, once a major economic activity practised with untold risks to extract coal in Meghalaya, now stands banned. A young physician recounts his danger-filled days as a child worker in rat-hole mines.
Dr. Kamphereiei Pala with his mother | AT Photo
Shillong, May 16: Defying the odds, Dr. Kamphereiei Pala has practically emerged out of the dark and eerie rat-hole mines of Meghalaya to seek a career as a medical practitioner.
After completion of his MBBS degree from the Gauhati Medical College in neighbouring Assam, Dr Pala, who is now working as an intern in the same institution, admitted on Wednesday that, as a child labourer doing a dozen odd jobs, he found rat-hole mining the toughest.
Dr Pala is one of the four children brought up by a single mother, who was a daily wage earner at Moolamylliang village in East Jaintia Hills district. He said that he had to work as a coal miner and do other odd jobs to pay his school fees and help the family financially.
“I had to work right from the time I was in Class IV or V. I worked at shops, as a handyman, and was engaged in many other odd jobs. It paid well when I finally worked as a coal miner. But then it was tough and challenging to crawl 200 metres into a tunnel every day to scrape coal inside shafts,” Dr Pala said.
“I had lost my way in the labyrinth of rat-hole mines one winter. I cried out for help, but nobody could bear me. After almost an hour of struggle, I was finally rescued,” Dr Pala recounted his extraordinary fight for survival to The Assam Tribune.
Away from all that hard and untidy toil now, Dr Pala has set for himself a new mission in life now. “In our villages, early marriages often lead to broken families and spawn a cycle of poverty, just like in the case of my family. I just want to change that,” he said.
Dr Pala is training to become a paediatrician so that he can interact directly with mothers and their families. “I do not know what the future holds for me, but I believe my calling is from my own poverty-ridden district, where cases of early marriages and broken families abound,” he added.
The young physician said that in his journey so far, several people, including members of the We Care Foundation, have mentored and helped him financially to pursue his studies. “It does not matter where you came from; what matters is where you are going,” Dr Pala signed off on a philosophical note.
