#India Children in Jharia’s coal mines | Childhoods lost to smoke, fire and an endless struggle for survival
They breathe hot air from smouldering underground fires. They carry sacks instead of books, drink filthy water, and wade barefoot through black mud. And instead of the bell that signals the start of school, they hear the sound of pickaxes. This is what childhood looks like in Jharia, the infamous ‘burning city'.
Photograph: Sourav Das
Children in Jharia’s coal mines | Childhoods lost to smoke, fire and an endless struggle for survival
Sourav Das has documented the fate of children whose lives are little more than a struggle for survival in the harshest of conditions. No healthcare, playgrounds or classrooms.
Photograph: Sourav Das
Children in Jharia’s coal mines | Childhoods lost to smoke, fire and an endless struggle for survival
When houses and shacks collapse into cracks that open up in the hollowed-out ground beneath them, they have to live in ruins. Some crawl out of the coal mine entrances or scurry across smoking rubbish heaps like pitch-black shadows, dressed in rags, faces covered in black dust.
Photograph: Sourav Das
Children in Jharia’s coal mines | Childhoods lost to smoke, fire and an endless struggle for survival.
Hope in shadows.
Photograph: Sourav Das
Children in Jharia’s coal mines | Childhoods lost to smoke, fire and an endless struggle for survival.
Lessons in the dust.
Photograph: Sourav Das
earthling