The 12-year-old boy wielded an iron pickaxe and desperately tapped the black coal seam, the 17-year-old sister picked up the coal block that was knocked down into the basket, toped it, and carefully walked down the hill, the little boy was hungry and tired, and when he saw his sister leave, he could no longer bear it, and a person fell on the pickaxe and cried.
This is the Jaria coalfield in India, known as the "Mountain of Flames", which people call the real "Purgatory", the place where it was "cursed by black".
In 1916, when the British were mining coal here, an accident ignited the coal mine, causing a raging fire, which was more than a hundred years old.
Since the fire can't be put out, just lie flat, it burns it, and I dig mine. On the one hand, the fire is burning wildly, and on the other hand, the residents are frantically mining.
The little boy's name is Jalson, and his sister's name is Savina, and the two get up at 4 a.m. every day, dig up coal for 4 hours, and then go to school.
The basket weighed about forty kilograms, and Savina, with the help of her companions, painstakingly lifted the basket and carefully walked down the hill.
The road was rough and the shoes on Saviva's feet were broken, so she simply took them off and went up the mountain barefoot.
Everyone secretly transported coal while watching out for the arrival of the police. Here, such open-pit blasting is illegal and can be punished with large fines if caught.
Therefore, everyone is very careful, and once they find the police, they will quickly escape.
However, he could not escape the police pursuit, but he could not escape the invasion of smoke.
Fire and poisonous smoke from cracks in the ground hung around people, and many people fell ill but had no money for treatment.
Fires have polluted hundreds of square kilometers of air and water, houses cracked and collapsed everywhere, but people are still stuck here, refusing to leave, because their ancestors have been digging coal for generations, and without coal, they have lost their only source of livelihood and no way to live.
Smoke is thick here all year round, and the pungent sulfurous gas erupts through the cracks in the ground, and the foul smell comes to the face, but people have long been accustomed to it and do not care.
Savina carried the coal block down the mountain, the younger brother picked up the foam, and the two brothers ignited the coal block so that it did not burn completely, a process called coking, and the finished coal after coking could be sold directly.
Pack them into sacks, weigh about 50 kilograms, bundle them on bicycles, and sell them in small towns a few kilometers away, which is the source of income for local residents.
This was the coke burned yesterday, and Savina tested the temperature with her feet to test her results. When she got home, she picked up her school bag, said two words to her mother, and before she could eat breakfast, she hurried to get into the neighbor's tricycle and rushed to school.
Needless to say, she was late, and her classmates were sitting in the classroom and had already started their classes. The teacher did not criticize her, because this was not the first time such a thing had happened.
The teacher knew every child, and she knew that Savina had done all her best to go to school, and she worked so hard that she got the chance to sit in the classroom.
Not every child has this opportunity. More children are forced to go up the mountain to dig coal at a young age, unable to read or write.
After school, Savina returned home, her mother squatting on the ground chopping vegetables, her eyes injured from coal mining, and she ended up blinding without money for medical treatment.
His father was in poor health and could no longer go out to work, and the burden of life fell on Savina and her brother.
The night is the happiest moment for her and her younger siblings, who happily gather together to learn about the wonderful world outside through the small mobile phone screen!
In the twilight, Savina and her brother stood together, looking at the burning coal mine not far away, and she told her brother that learning was their only way out. The girl's eyes shone brightly!