Meet Akansha Kumari, India’s first woman underground coal miner

This is for the first time that the core mining activity of one of the biggest coal mining companies of the world will witness this progressive change.

Akansha Kumari of Barkagaon in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand has become the first Indian woman mining engineer to join Coal India Limited (CIL).

She joined Churi underground mines, in the North Karanpura area of CCL, located in the state.

According to officials, though woman employees have been shouldering responsibilities ranging from officer to doctor to the security guard and even running heavy machines such as dumper and shovel and have excelled in their role, this is for the first time that core mining activity of one of the biggest coal mining company of the world will witness this progressive change.

The enormity of her achievement could be gauged by the fact that Akanksha is the second mining engineer in the Maharatna Conglomerate Coal India Limited (CIL) and the first one to work in an underground coal mine, they said.