25-year-old Akanksha Kumari has shattered the glass ceiling and become India's first-ever woman underground engineer. A graduate of Birsa Institute of Technology Sindri, she has joined Central Coalfields Limited, a subsidiary of Coal India, and is the first woman to do so.
She recently graduated, and has been posted at the Churi underground mines in the North Karanpura area of Jharkhand. In a statement released by Bihar's Press Information Bureau, CCL said that their women employees have achieved numerous strides in the company, and they continue to excel in this field. However, this is "the first time when the core mining activity of one of the biggest coal mining companies of the world will witness this progressive change."
The statement further said, "The enormity of her achievement can be gauged by the fact that Akanksha is the second mining engineer in the Maharatna conglomerate Coal India Limited and the first woman to work in an underground coal mine."
The official Twitter handle of CCL also shared the news and wrote, "CCL gets its first ever #women mining engineer, Ms Akanksha Kumari. A graduate of BIT Sindri, Ms Kumari broke the gender barriers by joining Churi UG mine, NK Area. She became the 1st women mining engineer in the history of CIL to work in underground mines Salute to #WomenPower"
Other politicians, including BJP MP P C Mohan and Union Minsiter Prahlad Joshi also congratulated her.
Akanksha Kumari is a resident of Barkagaon in Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand and has been a witness to the activities of the mining belt since her childhood. She took this hankering and decided to pursue it for her graduation in mining engineering from BIT Sindri. She credits her parents and the unflinching support of her family for this achievement.
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