Use money from District Mineral Foundations (DMF) for benefit of mining-affected communities and not for general purposes, says CSE’s new report

Government’s recent move to use DMF for healthcare provisioning during COVID-19 emergency must be limited to mining-affected areas and people. It must also look beyond towards building economic resilience of mining-affected communities, says CSE 

New Delhi, April 27, 2020: In a new report on DMF (District Mineral Foundation), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found that DMFs have a huge potential to address some of the key challenges which mining-affected communities have been burdened with for decades. In the wake of the recent government proposition to use DMF funds for healthcare measures for Covid-19 pandemic, CSE cautions that it must strictly be used for building health and economic resilience of mining-affected communities and not used as a general development fund. DMFs should continue to be used for improving the lives and livelihoods of affected communities in India’s mining districts. 

Says CSE director general Sunita Narain: “We understand the need for urgency and the importance of our response to COVID-19. However, it is also clear that DMF has been designed for our mining-affected communities, who live in the poorest and most backward regions of our country. Our report suggests that DMF should continue to improve and do more to build livelihood security in these regions. We are concerned that there are efforts to merge this fund for more general purposes. This must not happen.” 

DMF: Implementation status and emerging best practices (https://www.cseindia.org/dmf-implementation-status-and-emerging-best-practices-10057), as the report is titled, shows how -- over the last two years -- districts in India have tried to improve income levels, healthcare access, nutrition support, educational coverage etc using DMF. Says Narain: “Such investments, complimented by outcome-oriented and inclusive planning, can go a long way in ensuring equity and social dividend in India’s mining areas.” 

DMFs have been set up in most mining districts of India, with the stated objective to work for the benefit of communities ‘affected’ by mining. Since it was set up, DMF has accrued over Rs 36,000 crore in its coffers. Says Narain: “We believe the fund can play a crucial role in improving lives of people who are living on the margins of survival – caught between poverty and the environmental devastation caused by mining.” The flagship scheme of the Government of India – the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana (PMKKKY) -- also recognises this fact, the report points out. 

CSE has been following the progress of DMFs across the country for the past five years. The Centre has consistently and regularly reported on the scheme’s implementation, administration practices, and challenges (see all our DMF reports on www.cseindia.org). 

The latest report is the third in a series – CSE’s 2018 and 2017 reports had exposed the critical shortfalls in DMF administration, planning and investments which have been undermining the potential of the Foundations to benefit mining-affected communities. While many of those issues still stand, there have been efforts at course correction since then. Says Chinmayi Shalya, Environmental Governance Unit, CSE: “The 2020 report is an effort to capture some of these in the hope that more states and districts will be compelled to think and bring them into policy and practice.” 

Narain says: “We strongly recommend that DMF should not be merged or used for general purposes – even when it comes to the COVID-19 emergency. Instead, it should be used in the mining districts for the benefit of mining affected communities to improve their health infrastructure and well-being. This would certainly go a long way in building more inclusive societies, which will -- in turn --improve our resilience against future disasters.”
 

For a copy of the latest DMF report and other related reports, please visit www.cseindia.org
 
Down To Earth (Hindi) has covered DMF extensively. For the coverage, please visit www.downtoearth.org.in 

For any further details, please contact Sukanya Nair of The CSE Media Resource Centre, sukanya.nair@cseindia.org / 88168 18864.