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Context
India’s mineral ecosystem has undergone significant transformation over the past decade, primarily due to the establishment of the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act of 2015. This initiative aims to ensure that local communities benefit from the country’s rich mineral resources while addressing the socio-economic challenges faced by those living in mining-affected areas.
Background
- The Need for Reform: In the past, India has been blessed with mineral resources but the poor have not benefited from these resources. Giving out coal blocks and other minable assets was on a preferential basis, which resulted in huge losses to the exchequer besides creating minimal positive effects on the affected communities. Concerning these problems, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s reports during 2012 led to reconsidering of the mining policies.
- Establishment of the DMF: To address these challenges the Indian government in the year 2015 brought changes in the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act. This amendment opened up the provision of auctions of the mineral rights, and set DMFs as non-profit making organizations at district level. It is mandatory for the mining licensees and leaseholders to share a portion of royalty to these foundations that are presented to implement developmental projects meant for the community in the affected mining areas.
Impact of DMFs on Local Communities
- Financial Accumulation and Project Implementation: These DMFs have collected almost one lakh crore (Nearly 12 billion dollar) and have been used to disburse more than three lakh projects in 645 different districts of 23 states of India. These projects cover such fields as health, education, physical infrastructure as well as capacity building of the people of the community in question.
- Empowering Women and Local Entrepreneurs: This paper will assess the effectiveness of DMF initiative with a special focus on its success concerning women’s enhancement. For instance in Odisha there are self help groups (SHGs) that have been developed in a way that can support the women artisans as well as encourage a spirit of entrepreneurship among the women artisans. This has had an advantage of offering new job openings, as well as increasing the level of economic empowerment to women headed households in these societies.
- Technological Advancements: The DMFs are also encouraging innovation by supporting the skills of the youth. For instance, the programmes implemented in Madhya Pradesh include the use of training in drone technologies whereby young people are empowered in the job market to be useful in the fast changing market.
Challenges Faced by DMFs
- Governance and Transparency Issues: However there are some challenges that DMFs encounter that reduce their efficiency in their undertakings. Concerns have been expressed on matters of governance and transparency and some of the DMFs do not have standard policies as to how they are to operate. Hence, in need to embrace a central set of guidelines that would be used to implement projects required in using the funds.
- Inclusivity in Decision-Making: Again, although the majority of the DMFs have employed strategies of representing the electorate by including proper officials of the community, there are some shortcomings that have not been well addressed. Some DMFs have failed to permeate non-elected members of the gram sabhas and hence restricting the inclusion of the community in project formulation.
- Sustainability Concerns: Another significant factor, which is most important is the sustainability of the projects that have been funded by the DMFs. It is possible to identify numerous efforts that are designed to pursue SDGs but they face the problem of mainly short-term planning, which does not include assessment of negative consequences of projects on the environment and guarantees their sustainability after the funding sources have been depleted.
Conclusion
The District Mineral Foundation plan is an attempt at balancing the current extractive system in India and usher in a new one that will be friendly to the communities. Despite much improvement observed in the last decade regarding the sources designed to support local stakeholders’ initiatives, there are still issues with project governance and accessibility that require further discussion. Therefore, through encouraging innovation, improving the transparency, and linking the initiatives with the national development programmes, the Indian leadership must guarantee that the mineral resources of the country become the driver for more sustainable development and the betterment of the lives of all the people involved.
Source: The Hindu