![]() Poverty is the main reason for taking up such a job. ‘We pick up coal from closed and abandoned mines (of Central Coalfield Ltd, CCL) and sell them in Ranchi,’ explained Ramesh. He does this twice a week, earning between Rs.2,000 and Rs.3,000 a month. He completes the arduous 45-km journey in nearly 18 hours, cycling precariously through steep zigzagging hilly roads for a living even as death beckons him daily either in the form of an accident or a slow painful end from tuberculosis. He reaches the Jharkhand capital in the evening the next day, playing hide and seek with death every time. Ramesh Hembrom begins his journey for Ranchi at midnight from Patratu on a bicycle laden with 1.5 quintals of coal. Jharkhand’s bicycle coal carriers court death for living
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