Release of CSE's Status Report on District Mineral Foundations (DMF) in India

June 8, 2017

CSE, Core 6A, Fourth Floor, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

It has been proclaimed a scheme with a difference – one which has immense potential to overturn the decades of injustice meted out to the thousands of people living in deep poverty in India’s mining districts. One which will finally give them a share in the benefits from mining. And one which can be expected to bring those districts out of the lists of the poorest places in the country.

Two years after District Mineral Foundations (DMFs) were instituted, Centre for Science and Environment has carried out a survey to find out whether the scheme lived up to its promise. CSE did its study in 50 top mining districts across 11 states to find out whether the Foundations are working.
We bring you the results of the survey in a status report. This is a first-of-its-kind independent, state-of-the-art assessment of the DMF scheme.

Sample this:

  •  Rs 5,800 crore has been collected under DMF in the country. The figure does not capture all the mining districts as some states have not framed their DMF Rules yet.

  • Districts are lagging behind in making the required administrative and institutional arrangements under DMF. Of the 50 districts surveyed, only 7 have established DMF offices, and only 27 have registered DMF Trusts.

  • Only 17 districts (of 50) have made their DMF Plans available.

The status report is a comprehensive compilation of all such statistics and their analysis. While the report details the findings of the CSE team from three key mining states – Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha – its findings are relevant to every mining state in India.

The report was released at a workshop in New Delhi on June 8, 2017.

For more details please contact Souparno Banerjee (souparno@cseindia.org / 9910864339) of The CSE Media Resource Centre.