Preventable Accidents in Indian Coal Mining: A Socio-Technical Alignment Approach to Labour Safety

Abstract With a significant position in the global minerals map, for India, the importance of the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit in Indian mining is unmissable. Among the various mining activities, coal presents a relevant case as a significant sector for India, with its labourers being exposed to preventable hazards that result in fatalities and chronic injuries despite high mechanisation. This paper intends to develop a conceptual framework to theorise workplace safety in Indian coal mining through the lens of preventable accidents and socio-technical alignment by drawing upon the mining accidents database data from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and literature on occupational safety. The paper is situated within the broader scholarship on occupational safety and highlights how most fatalities occur in ancillary processes such as haulage and transportation, rather than excavation, underscoring that mechanisation alone has not reduced risks. By advancing the concept of preventable accidents, the paper emphasises that mining fatalities are not naturalised risks inherent to geology or technology but outcomes of systemic failures in organisational routines, regulatory enforcement, and socio-technical integration. The paper foregrounds the concept of preventable accidents to reframe coal mine hazards not as inevitable but as institutionally produced and therefore avoidable. It also develops a theoretical argument that safety outcomes are shaped less by the degree of mechanisation than by the alignment of socio-technical systems, regulatory regimes, and organisational priorities. Through this framing, the paper situates Indian coal mining within global debates on labour precarity, industrial modernisation, and risk governance. The study challenges fatalistic discourses about mining risk and advances a socio-technical alignment model to guide scholarly debates and policy design. The findings have implications beyond coal mining, offering a framework for understanding safety in other high-risk, labour-intensive sectors where mechanisation coexists with organisational and regulatory deficits.