Enabling People-Centric Energy Transition through Circular Economy: Evidence from Rajhara, India.

Enabling People-Centric Energy Transition through Circular Economy: Evidence from Rajhara, India.

 Animesh Ghosh & Vaibhav Chowdhary

animesh.ghosh@ashoka.edu.in, vaibhav.chowdhary@ashoka.edu.in

India’s net-zero commitment for 2070 requires credible, people-centric pathways for managing coal-mine closures and the socio-ecological disruption they trigger. In India, the discontinuation of mining has left over 100,000 hectares of disturbed land awaiting closure or repurposing, with 299 abandoned/discontinued/closed mines identified by the Government creating not only significant livelihood risks for mine-dependent local economies, but also persistent environmental and ecological burdens (e.g., unsafe voids and overburden dumps, dust and habitat fragmentation, degraded soils, contaminated runoff/acid mine drainage, and residual emissions). This study presents action research from Rajhara, a discontinued coal-mining landscape in Palamu district, Jharkhand, where the Ashoka Centre for a People-Centric Energy Transition (ACPET) assessed closure-linked vulnerabilities and co-designed circular-economy “repurposing” interventions to rebuild livelihoods around agriculture, the dominant pre-mining occupation.

Using an interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach, the research combined household and farmer surveys with qualitative KIIs/FGDs to examine (i) a Solar Lift Irrigation (SLI) intervention (7.5 HP pump), (ii) the formation and early strengthening of a Farmer Producer Organization (FPO), and (iii) complementary diagnostics on clean-cooking practices. The analysis applies the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Adaptability) principles and the AARQA (Accessibility, Accountability, Reliability, Quality, Affordability) framework to assess transition outcomes across gender, wellbeing, and livelihood dimensions, besides income-expenditure dynamics.

Findings show that productivity gains are strongly mediated by governance. Prior to SLI, irrigation was entirely rainfed, and farm incomes were low; post-intervention, early implementation evidence indicates improved water access, higher cropping aspirations, and strong perceived income potential among participating farmers. Water-quality testing suggests mine water is suitable for irrigation, strengthening environmental feasibility. However, operational sustainability is defined through proper execution of Water User Group-defined regulations, transparent cost-sharing, and reliable scheduling. The FPO baseline (approximately 750 farmers, with a majority being women and predominantly marginal/ small holdings) highlights the centrality of collective institutions for input aggregation, including seeds, fertilizer, production planning, and market linkages. Evidence on clean cooking highlights persistent affordability constraints and gendered exposure risks, reinforcing the need for integrated livelihood-energy interventions.

Overall, the case demonstrates how repurposed post-mining assets, paired with fit-for-context local institutions, can function as a practical model of “people-centric transition” in coal-mine–affected regions.

Keywords: just transition; coal-mine closure; circular economy; asset repurposing; solar lift irrigation; farmer producer organization; mixed methods; gender; India.