Clay mine collapse kills three in Madhya Pradesh's Singrauli district

On Sunday morning in Parsohar village, about 70 kilometers from Singrauli's district center, five people descended into a clay mine to extract chui mitti—a white earth that rural families have used for generations to coat and brighten their homes. By afternoon, three of them were dead, buried under the collapse of the mine walls they had been working.

The five who entered the pit that day included two girls: Preeti Singh, who was ten years old, and Basanti, sixteen. The others were three women—Phulmati Yadav, fifty; Kaushalya Singh, fifty; and Sakmuni Singh, forty-five. They were working in an informal operation, the kind that exists across rural Madhya Pradesh, where families and small groups extract clay and other materials without formal licensing or safety infrastructure. No one was wearing protective equipment. No one was monitoring the structural integrity of the pit walls.

The mine gave way without warning. The collapse happened fast enough that all five were trapped. Preeti, Basanti, and Phulmati Yadav died at the scene, crushed or suffocated under the weight of earth and clay. Kaushalya Singh and Sakmuni Singh survived the initial collapse but were gravely injured. Both women were taken to Devsar Community Hall, where they received treatment for their wounds.

The collapse occurred within the jurisdiction of Jiawan police station, in an area under the Kundwar outpost. Sub-Divisional Police Officer Gayatri Tiwari confirmed the details to reporters: five people had entered the mine, the walls failed, and three did not emerge alive. The incident was recorded as a mining accident in a district where such operations are common but largely unregulated.

Chui mitti—the white clay that drew these five into the ground—is a practical material in rural life. It is cheap, abundant, and effective. Families mix it with water and apply it to their walls, creating a bright, clean finish that reflects heat and lasts through seasons. The work of extracting it is simple enough that anyone can do it, which is precisely why it remains dangerous. There are no inspections, no safety protocols, no requirement that the pit walls be shored up or that someone trained in excavation oversee the work. The earth simply holds until it doesn't.

The deaths of Preeti Singh and Basanti mark the particular vulnerability of children in informal labor. A ten-year-old and a sixteen-year-old were in that pit doing the same work as the adults around them, exposed to the same risks, with no one responsible for their safety. Phulmati Yadav, at fifty, was old enough to have done this work many times before. She did not survive this time.

The incident is one of many that occur in India's informal mining sector each year—collapses, flooding, suffocation, and injury in pits and quarries that operate outside regulatory oversight. Singrauli district, in eastern Madhya Pradesh, has a long history of mining activity, both formal and informal. The formal mines are regulated, inspected, and required to meet safety standards. The informal operations, where families extract clay and stone for local use or small-scale sale, exist in a gap where regulation is minimal and enforcement is nearly absent. Sunday's collapse is what happens in that gap.