In Odisha’s mineral map, Keonjhar district generates huge revenue for the state. This northern district boasts vast reserves of iron ore, chromite, limestone, dolomite, nickel, granite, and more. According to District Mineral Foundation (DMF) reports, it is estimated that Keonjhar holds a total of 2,555 million tonnes of iron ore reserves. At the current extraction rate of 55 million tonnes per year, these reserves are projected to last another 60 years. However, if the extraction rate increases to 140 million tonnes per year, the reserves could be depleted in just 23 years. Currently, these mineral resources are exploited by both government-led corporations, such as the Orissa Mining Corporation Ltd., and private entities like Tata Iron and Steel Corporation Ltd., Essel Mining and Industries Ltd., along with several other local and national mining companies. This landlocked district leads in mining-driven industrialisation and contributes significantly to the state’s economy.
This resource-rich district is predominantly inhabited by some of the most marginalised people in the caste ridden Hindu social and economic hierarchy. Despite the electoral victory of Mr. Mohan Majhi, a tribal leader from Keonjhar, as the Chief Minister of Odisha, the political, social, cultural, economic, and environmental marginalisation of the district’s tribal population (44.5%) and Scheduled Castes (11.62%) remains unchanged. Mining companies continue to accumulate wealth by dispossessing and marginalising these vulnerable communities within the district and the state. A Baseline Survey of Keonjhar, conducted by the NCDS in Bhubaneswar, reveals that 94.1% of households live below the poverty line, and 58.4% reside in mud houses. The state of health and education in the district is in dire condition.
There is no scarcity of resources or funds for the social and economic development of the people in Keonjhar district. According to DMF Keonjhar, cumulatively a total of ₹11,684 crore has been collected. In the 2023-2024 financial year alone, ₹1,731 crore was collected, and ₹580 crore was collected in the 2014-2015 financial year. As per constitutional provisions, these funds are intended to be used for the welfare of the district’s residents, particularly those impacted by mining-driven industrialisation.
If these resources are utilised and distributed properly, they could eradicate hunger, poverty and homelessness, while also developing world class health, education, transport and communication infrastructure- transforming the face of 2137 villages and 297 gram panchayats in the district. If the DMF funds disburse properly for human and infrastructure development, each village in Keonjhar district can get Five Crore, Forty Six Lakh, Seventy Four Thousand, Seven Hundred, Seventy Seven Rupees (Rs. 5, 46, 74, 777.7258) and each gram panchayat can get Thirty-Nine Crore, Thirty-Four Lakh, Six Hundred, Seventy Three rupees (Rs. 39, 34, 00, 673.401). In international calculation, the proper disbursement of DMF funds for human and infrastructure development could mean that each village in Keonjhar district would receive ₹54.67 millions and each gram panchayat would receive ₹393.4 million.
Despite being flush with welfare and development funds, women and children are struggling for basic health and educational amenities for a dignified living. The child poverty is rampant in the district. School dropouts are regular affairs. The children are underweight, and women are anaemic in the Keonjhar district which pays highest mining royalty in India. The people in such a district suffer from abject poverty, malnutrition and other forms of everyday deprivation.
Successive governments in Odisha—led by the Congress Party, Janata Party, Janata Dal, Biju Janata Dal (BJD), and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—have approached mining areas like Keonjhar and the state’s mineral resources with a rent-seeking, colonial mindset. The extraction of resources with the help of mining led industrialisation in the name of economic growth and development, the ruling classes have focused on extracting wealth without prioritising the welfare of the people. The state, its governments, and mining corporations work together to exploit the mineral resources and indigenous communities, uprooting them from their livelihoods and homes, and displacing their way of life. This results in various forms of continuous social, economic, cultural, and environmental marginalisation of the most marginalised population in the district and the state.
This reflects the poverty of politics, planning, and development in the state, where visionless leadership treats politics as a tool for amassing personal wealth and family business. The collaboration between higher castes and class constitutes the political elites in the state which has derailed progress, undermining democratic development. Instead of empowering people as rightful stakeholders in the resources of mineral rich districts and the state, these politics have deepened inequality and exclusion. Mineral-rich districts like Keonjhar are home to some of the poorest people in Odisha and India.
The newly elected Hindutva government, led by the BJP and Chief Minister Mr. Mohan Majhi, continues the approach of previous governments regarding the development and welfare of the tribal population and other marginalised communities in the state. Hindutva politics promotes development policies that empower crony capitalists and mining corporations at the expense of the environment and the people. The economic policies of Hindutva are not significantly different from those pursued by the former BJD government under Mr. Naveen Patnaik. The circulation of ruling elites does not bring about transformation in society toward peace and prosperity.
This political and development crisis presents an opportunity for alternative politics, where people are not just participants in party politics during elections but also rightful shareholders of the state’s resources. Let the people living in mining areas become the true owners of these mineral resources. The government should make people shareholders of these mineral and other resources. This is the only way for the people to develop—by reclaiming their political and economic rights as citizens and deepening democratic politics through continuous struggle against the caste-class collaborative politics that dominates the state.
Bhabani Shankar Nayak is a political commentator