An estimated 1.5 million people cut sugarcane across India, often working 14 hours a day for about 400 rupees. Couples work as a pair from dawn to night, resting only while the cane is loaded onto trucks. Citing an investigation by the British newspaper The Independent, Ittefaq reports that under this pressure many women cane cutters are having hysterectomies for fear of losing work.
India produces 16 percent of the world's sugarcane, second only to Brazil, and cane from the region supplies soft-drink makers such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Most cutters come from Beed district in central Maharashtra, where there is no other work. In a tent camp at Ramnal in rural Karnataka, more than 500km from her village, Purnima's day starts at 4am.
Contractors deal with the sugar mills and pay workers an advance; to repay it, each couple, known locally as a 'koyta', is expected to cut at least three tonnes of cane a day on average. Because the group's earnings are pooled, a woman who misses work through illness is asked to pay the others for the extra effort. In temporary camps without toilets or drinking water there is no leave during menstruation, since one day off means a large cut in wages.
One worker, Savita, had a hysterectomy in March 2025. Severe abdominal pain left her unable to climb the ladder to load trucks, and she fell three times last year. Months after the operation she is still bleeding and the pain is worse; doctors in Pune found an infection, but she was never given the records of her surgery. Purnima, after three years of constant pain and about 50,000 rupees spent on it in a year, is now considering the operation too, which would mean another loan.
In 2019 the Maharashtra government surveyed 82,309 women cane workers in Beed and found 13,861 had had hysterectomies; more than 45 percent of them later reported physical or mental problems. Women's rights activist Sangeeta Chauhan says many women are steered to private clinics rather than government hospitals and operated on without proper medical reason, and that some ASHA community health workers admitted taking money for referrals. ASHA worker Ganga Shevante in Maharashtra denied taking any such payment.
In March 2025 the Bombay High Court ordered the state to ensure workers' registration, welfare benefits and better health care; an update due in November 2025 has not been published. Contractor Ashruba Datta said their income depends on the weight of cane delivered to the mill, so paid leave is not possible. Beed's district collector did not comment. Coca-Cola said it is working with the development organisation Solidaridad to provide drinking water, toilets, shaded rest areas and women's hygiene products.
Source: Ittefaq
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