Crushed Hopes: The Plight of Women Cane Cutters in Maharashtra

Based on a survey conducted with 1,042 women sugarcane-cutters in eight districts of Maharashtra, this report by SOPPECOM documents reproductive and socio-economic injustice. The women interviewed often function as one half of a koyta (a married couple that forms a single working unit in the fields). In addition to the daily farming labour for 13-18 hours, women also hold domestic responsibilities and are tasked with care work, adversely affecting their health. The most glaring issues arise with a lack of access to clean water, toilets, bathing facilities, menstrual-health support, accessible pharmacies, pre/post-natal care, and pressures to meet daily quotas, which have led to uninformed prescriptions of hysterectomies in the region. In response, the report lays out a set of demands to alleviate the women cane-cutters’ conditions. These include, but aren’t limited to, the establishment of a separate welfare board, ensuring direct payments to women, provision of basic amenities and rations at cane-cutting sites, and bringing in a comprehensive health service policy. A key insight this report provides is that while a koyta is employed in the fields as a unit, access to income is often gendered, with 80 percent of women reporting the payments being handed over to their husbands. The report illuminates how the lack of direct access to income obscures their labour in the field. It also makes evident how the economics of cane-cutting is intricately tied to a reproductive health crisis which requires policy-based interventions.