Mining, among all the commercial fields, has remained a male-dominated sector for ages, not just in India but even in the developed world. But in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district, there are signs of this gender stereotype being broken by a bunch of young women engineers, gradually but surely.
From supervising the drilling of rocks in underground mines to the maintenance of large pumps, 109 women engineers across mines and smelters employed at Vedanta group’s Hindustan Zinc Limited are working shoulder-to-shoulder with their male colleagues.
For many of these successful miners and geologists, it has been an “unbelievable” journey – right from the time they took admission to “unwomanly” mining, geology, and engineering courses. “I was the only girl in my BE mining class, at Anna University in 2019, which had 26 boys,” says Maheshwari, 20, a safety graduate engineer trainee with HZL.
Since her elder sister had opted for Information Technology engineering, her decision to pursue mining engineering had raised many an eyebrow.
“Many of my friends wondered if I would be able to pursue a career in mining. But my parents supported me. They asked me to go ahead if I felt confident of succeeding,” she says.
For many of HZL’s women engineers, success also brings a sense of accomplishment. Kripali Gehlot, who joined HZL as an electrical graduate engineer trainee at Zawar Mill in 2017, relishes being a virtual trailblazer. “It gives a different kind of pleasure to work in the field which is said to be meant only for men,” she says.
HZL CEO Arun Misra says, “In the male-dominated mining sector, 59 women mining engineers and overall 109 women engineers across mines and smelters are playing a pivotal role and HZL is at the forefront of encouraging and recruiting women and giving them leadership roles, including in mining operations.”
“We are pioneering in giving equal opportunities that make us the first company in India to have appointed a ‘woman underground mine’ manager, at our Zawar Mines in Rajasthan,” he says, adding that the company has engaged 19.34% of women in the executive workforce and 5% are playing leadership roles in various departments.
The entry of not all HZL’s women engineers into a male-dominated domain was a smooth affair. Dealing with an all-male workforce had its initial hiccups for some of them but with their knowledge and skill, they managed to earn respect “equal” to their male counterparts.
Kavita Meena, assistant manager, Dariba Mill, HZL, says: “I am the only female mechanical engineer in my department (mill) in Sindesar Khurd mine. Being in the field of maintenance, my initial roadblock was to overcome the traditional thinking about women who usually don’t work in the maintenance department.”
“With time, I applied a hands-on work approach to make my team comfortable and I have also won their trust by handling plant breakdowns in minimum time as well as managing manpower efficiently,” she says.