AURANGABAD: To address the long-pending issues of bias and exploitation, women sugar cane cutters have pledged to join hands for getting equal pay, social security as well as recognition.
The women sugar cane cutters had gathered in Beed on the appeal of Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (MKAM), which has been consistently raising the issues of discrimination, bias and exploitation of women farm workers in 24 states of the country.
Members of MKAM, along with the women workers, pledged to unanimously strive and take steps to not only get equal pay and social security, but also get health facilities from the sugar cane companies and contractors hiring these workers for their services.
On Wednesday, they started enrolling women sugar cane cutters and workers from different villages so that they could come handy for getting majority of them registered in accordance to the latest GR with respective gram panchayats.
Activist Seema Kulkarni, member of core team and national facilitation team, told TOI, “Women farm workers continue to remain amongst the most exploited of the workers in the country. They are exploited socially, psychologically, physically, financially as well as sexually.”
During the meeting, women sugar cane cutters narrated their tales of woes to the members of the manch and also how the contractors even lock them daily so that they do not flee away from the sugar cane cutting sites due to sexual as well as financial exploitation.
Beed-based member of the manch Manisha Tokle said, “Beed district has several lakh sugar cane cutters, of which, half are women. Despite they working shoulder-to-shoulder, in over 90% cases, their husbands or male members of the families collect all their wages from the contractor.”
Members of the manch have set a target to get majority of the women sugar cane cutters in another two months as post October, they travel hundreds of kilometres while cutting sugar cane and return home only six months later.
