Women strike back

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For Sumani Sahu, of Orissa's coal town Talcher, the days are becoming longer. Mining has eaten away at her village, leaving but a shell behind. Fetching water and gathering firewood keep her occupied from three in the morning to late in the evening. The remaining hours in the day are spent out of home as well. Blasting dynamites might cause her house to collapse. Her husband is employed as a casual labourer in the mines. He hardly comes to her anymore, as "she is unable to manage the house properly'.

Far away from Sumani, the women of Karnataka's Kolar goldmine areas replay her story. After a 113-year history of gold mining, the mines have shut shop. The immediate impact was on the women. As men were laid off, women set out of their homes at four in the morning to travel 100