Within the coronary heart of Maharashtra lies a tangled internet of politics and sugar, inseparable and entwined. Right here, the place cooperative sugar mills have been born, virtually each politician has a stake within the sugar business, and cash flows just like the candy sap of sugarcane. Within the 2024 elections, this dynamic stays unchanged. But, amidst this opulent show of energy and wealth, there’s a deafening silence. The very politicians who’ve constructed their empires on the sugar financial system refuse to acknowledge one essential facet of their business – the sugarcane cutters.
Amidst the lofty guarantees that fill the air, Rani Nikam (identify modified) introduced a brand new life into the world amidst the rustling sugarcane fields of Karad. However she shouldn’t be alone in her plight. Many sugarcane cutters like her toil within the fields, chopping cane whilst their bellies swell with new life. Their kids, born into this harsh world, usually meet tragic ends, crushed beneath the burden of tractors or misplaced to the unforgiving roads. But, the sugar mills homeowners flip a blind eye to their plight. Over ten lakh sugarcane cutters, half of them ladies, proceed to struggle for his or her elementary rights as residents of the nation as their plight finds no resonance within the election marketing campaign.
Majority of sugarcane cutters are from Marathwada, particularly, Beed district. who migrate to western Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana throughout the sugar crushing season which lasts for about six months.
Endless apathy
“Generations of sugarcane cutters have confronted super exploitation, however no person has helped us. The dwelling circumstances on the sugar mill website are worse. We’ve got to work virtually 15-18 hour each day with none break. Be it pregnant ladies, some who, having fever or menstrual cycles. Ladies have to hold the heavy burden of sugarcane on their heads and cargo tractors and vans. No person has helped in enhancing these circumstances,” says Dwarka Waghmare, a sugarcane cutter from Beed.
“The sugar foyer is a category that pervades throughout political events, with the political elite thriving on the sugar financial system. Sugar mills absolve themselves of any duty in direction of sugarcane cutters. The tough actuality of monetary and sexual exploitation, together with the denial of primary staff’ rights and facilities like bogs, stays absent from political discussions,” says Seema Kulkarni, coordinator of the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch in Maharashtra. “Regardless of quite a few authorized and administrative measures, the plight of sugarcane cutters, who’re integral to the sugar business, stays unchanged,” she added.
Silence on political entrance
Predictably, no political get together has addressed the problem of sugarcane cutters of their ongoing campaigns. The sugar barons of western Maharashtra deflect duty, asserting that sugarcane cutters fall beneath the purview of farmers, as mills pay Honest and Remunerative Worth (FRP) to farmers. Within the sugar belt of western Maharashtra, the place sugar barons from all events are actively campaigning for the upcoming elections, the sugarcane cutters issues are conspicuously absent from the agenda.
In Beed district, referred to as the district of sugarcane cutters, the BJP’s Pankaja Munde and the NCP’s Bajrang Sonawane are locked in a fierce electoral battle. Nonetheless, sugarcane cutters lament that each candidates supply nothing new, solely repeating the lofty guarantees they’ve been making for a number of elections.