Overview
This report, a joint publication by the Centre for Energy, Environment & People (CEEP) and Indicc Associates, presents a qualitative case study of the Kota Super Thermal Power Station (KSTPS) to examine the socio-economic complexities of India's energy transition at the plant level. While much of the existing discourse on just transition in India focuses on coal-bearing regions, this study turns attention to thermal power plants themselves, which are distributed across 22 states and form a critical but under-examined segment of the coal value chain. KSTPS, established in 1983 and now operating seven units with a combined capacity of about 1240 MW, has shaped Kota's local economy, land use, and environment over four decades, supporting an ecosystem of permanent staff, contractual workers, fly ash brick units, cement industries, and informal livelihoods.
The report does not advocate for early repurposing of thermal units but argues that whenever transition occurs, it must be humane and grounded in a clear understanding of who bears its costs. Drawing on Amartya Sen's capability approach, it maps the economic, human, social, and political capital of disadvantaged worker groups, particularly contractual labour at KSTPS and daily-wage workers in the associated fly ash brick industry, to surface their differentiated and intersectional vulnerabilities. The findings show that transition risks are unevenly distributed across skill categories, caste, gender, and employment status, and that affirmative policy interventions must move beyond re-employment and upskilling to safeguard a sustained quality of life for impacted households.
Key Highlights
- Permanent employees enjoy secure tenure, decent pay, pensions, and the prospect of transfer or voluntary retirement, while contractual workers, who form the bulk of the on-site workforce, face lower wages, no employment security, and limited pension or gratuity benefits, making them acutely vulnerable to repurposing.
- Workers in the associated fly ash brick industry are the most exposed group, since as informal-sector workers they fall outside statutory minimum wage protections and are excluded from ESI and the Employee's Compensation Act, while also facing serious occupational health risks from prolonged fly ash exposure.
- The social composition of the workforce becomes increasingly homogenous moving down the skill pyramid, with semi-skilled workers drawn primarily from Other Backward Castes and Scheduled Castes, and unskilled workers predominantly from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, indicating high collective vulnerability concentrated in already disadvantaged communities.
- Skill upgradation pathways are constrained by the absence of formal mechanisms to recognise on-the-job skills acquired by semi-skilled and unskilled workers, while long-serving workers in hazardous sites such as the coal yard and ash handling plant suffer from degraded eyesight and respiratory conditions that further curtail employability.
- Political capital is starkly uneven; skilled workers participate actively in labour unions, semi-skilled engagement is inconsistent, and unskilled workers' representation in union leadership is virtually absent, with women's voices largely missing across all categories despite making up roughly 10% of the contractual workforce in Rajasthan's thermal plants.
- The study recommends a transition pathway built on dialogue and consensus building, comprehensive socio-economic impact assessments, inclusive representation of contractual and informal workers in decision-making, strengthening of social security mechanisms such as ESI and EPF, leveraging local opportunities through reskilling and plant repurposing, and responsible governance with transparency and accountability across the State, generation companies, unions, and civil society.
