As the road curved at Charahi, Mukesh Gupta paused for a few seconds, firmed up his grip on the handlebars and continued pushing his bicycle. With eight sacks filled with coal weighing more than 250 kilograms tied on both sides of his bicycle, it was not easy to navigate the turn. Gupta had started pushing his bicycle on the national highway at four in the morning. At 9 am, his brow dripping with sweat, he had reached only half-way to Hazaribagh.

After the central government nationalised coal in 1971, it became illegal to dig coal by hand and pick-axes for use at home or to sell it in small quantities in the market. But in Jharkhand's coal-rich areas, thousands like Gupta, who own no land of their own, make arduous journeys and survive by selling coal scavenged from abandoned mines and disputed pits to homes, dhabas and brick kilns in towns nearby.

The work is back-breaking. Coal-pushers, or the koilawallas, use their bicycles as trolleys and push 150-250 kgs of coal packed in gunny bags over distances of 30-60 kilometres. Most manage upto three trips a week depending on the distance from the coal mine to the town. On Jharkhand's undulating roads, moving in groups, the koilawallas pushing coal uphill appear like ants struggling with loads far heavier than their bodies can hold.

Every year upto 20 million tonnes of coal is allegedly diverted from state-owned mines. What the koilawallas carry is a small fraction of this. But they live and work in perpetual fear of being jailed for their livelihood.

The police slashed the tyres of Tileshwar Mahto’s cycle last year. “They said, bandh karo yeh kaala dhandha. Stop this, it is illegal,’" recounted his wife, Sarita Devi. But the couple hasn’t stopped making trips to Ranchi, 70 kilometres away. One night in August, they left their village Budhakhkra at 2 am, cycling to Rajrappa collieries 15 kilometres away. An hour later, they reached Rajrappa where villagers had already sorted the coal and kept it ready. “We have no land, and their land has been ruined by the mining,” said Mahto.

He bought twenty sacks of coal for Rs 400. It would take him three days to transport the coal on his bicycle to Ranchi. “If I manage to sell the entire stock, I will earn Rs 600,” he said. For each day of this three-day journey, he will earn a little less than the minimum wage of Rs 210 a day. The demand for coal in the cities has been declining, and so have the rates. Mahto blames the falling rates on the cheaper availability of Liquefied Petroleum Gas. “I have heard these days everyone is getting cheap gas because of Modi,” he said, referring to the Prime Minister.

On the road to Ranchi, his wife Sarita accompanied him for the first two days, helping him push the bicycle over two inclines at Lalkighati and Chutupalughati. Then, she turned back to go home, leaving him alone for the last stretch of 30 kilometres with his cycle and the sacks of coal.