Skip to main content

Sugarcane fields: Child workers married early to 'avoid' sexual exploitation, says report

Counterview Desk 
A report, based on an evidence-based study by a multinational NGO, Global March Against Child, which headquarters in the Hague, providing an overview of child labour with a gender lens in sugarcane harvesting in India, has said that large number of children are pushed into hazardous child labour due to structural poverty among harvesters, most of whom are from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes.
Suffering from exploitative hiring practices, the report says, traditional gender-based norms have contributed significantly to child labour by normalising unequal wages and unpaid family work, the report, prepared by NGO policy research coordinator Gazal Malik and project officer Kratika Choubey, seeks to focus on the facets of gender and caste as cross-cutting issues to be kept in mind while addressing the problem of child labour in sugarcane supply chain and in other agricultural crops in India.

Excerpt:

Maheswari and Kavita (names changed) who migrated from Bellary to Mandya district of Karnataka, also known as the “Sugarcane City”, had just returned from a sugarcane farm located 2 kilometers away. Their work was not finished yet. The sisters had come back to the padav (temporary accommodation for migrant workers engaged in sugarcane harvesting) to fetch water for the next morning before it was too dark for them to walk alone to the nearest hand pump.
“Will you wait for us to come back or do you want to walk with us towards the handpump?” asked Kavita, looking at Maheshwari and suddenly bursting into laughter. As we walked with them towards the handpump, Maheshwari shared that afternoon is the only time when they can get some water from the handpump because in mornings and evenings the locals don’t let them fill water from the community handpump and hurl casteist remarks at them. “Two of the upper caste men also tried to grope us last week.” said Maheswari while signaling us to walk faster”.
While Maheswari dropped out of school after fifth grade, Kavita was never enrolled in any educational institute. Both of them started working on the sugarcane farm as soon as they learnt to use a koyta (a sickle used to cut cane, also a term used to refer to migrant sugarcane workers). They would soon be married at the age of 15 and 17 respectively, into a family of migrant sugarcane harvesters.
When asked why they are getting married early, they reluctantly shared that their parents have to worry about their safety all the time so they will be “given” to a suitable boy and their parents can work peacefully. “I asked my parents to wait for some more time,” Kavita said, “But they told me this is the right age and I am not the only girl getting married at this age”.
After Maheswari and Kavita are married, they will have to continue working on the sugarcane fields with their new family. As has been the experience of many other female sugarcane harvesters that we interacted with, both of these girls will end up working for an average of 16-18 hours a day, in addition to the unpaid labour at home.
They are also likely to cut cane till the very last day of their pregnancy, without receiving any maternity benefits such as paid leaves or extra rest time. Statistically speaking, there’s an 80% chance that their children will never access school education and end up in the labour market.
Child marriage is illegal, yet it is prevalent in regions where farming incomes are low and migration for harvesting sugarcane has been a norm. For instance, in the Dang region of Gujarat, a predominantly tribal area, 33% of the total marriages in 2019 were child marriages, as reported by the rural municipality. Hardships caused by multidimensional poverty and the fear of sexual abuse of young girls are reported as the principal drivers of child marriage in the region.
As a consequence of Covid-19, the practice of child marriage is becoming more and more common amongst migrant families because of the increasing debt and decreasing household income. Thus, for children belonging to families made desperate by caste based structural poverty the choices are not many but to engage in child labour, give in to child marriage as a means of survival and avoid being victims of sexual exploitation.

Comments

TRENDING

Campaign group urges INDIA alliance to release Jharkhand manifesto to counter BJP’s 'divisive' agenda

By Our Representative  The Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan, an advocacy group, has issued a press release urging the INDIA alliance to release a Jharkhand-specific manifesto to counter the BJP’s "divisive" electoral agenda. With just two weeks remaining before the assembly elections, the INDIA coalition has yet to announce its plans and priorities for the state. Meanwhile, the BJP's campaign, according to the press release, is centered around communalism, divisiveness, and distraction from Jharkhand's core issues.

Tributes paid to pioneer of Naxalism in Punjab, who 'dodged' police for 60 yrs

By Harsh Thakor*  Jagjit Singh Sohal, known as Comrade Sharma, a pioneer of Naxalism in Punjab, passed away on October 20 at the age of 96. Committed to the Naxalite cause and a prominent Maoist leader, Sohal, who succeeded Charu Majumdar, played hide and seek with the police for almost six decades. He was cremated in Patiala.

Israel's 'war crime': 18,000 children died not just from bomb explosions but also starvation

By Sandeep Pandey*  Last year 6 years old Madiha was a guest during Diwali at our home in Lucknow. Listening to the sound of fire crackers bursting outside she remarked, ‘It appears as if we’re in Gaza.’ She has probably no idea of the extent of damage and loss of life that has taken place in Palestine but can relate to sound of crackers as bombs exploding over Gaza.

United organisations oppose privatisation of health services in Madhya Pradesh

By Our Representative  In a strong show of opposition, multiple health associations under the umbrella of the United Organisations for Action against Privatisation of Health Services have condemned the Government of Madhya Pradesh’s recent moves towards privatising public health facilities. They argue that these actions, including outsourcing and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, will compromise the availability and accessibility of essential health services for the state’s citizens.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Right-arm fast bowler who helped West Indies shape arguably greatest Test team in cricket history

By Harsh Thakor*  Malcolm Marshall redefined what it meant to be a right-arm fast bowler, challenging the traditional laws of biomechanics with his unique skill. As we remember his 25th death anniversary on November 4th, we reflect on the legacy he left behind after his untimely death from colon cancer. For a significant part of his career, Marshall was considered one of the fastest and most formidable bowlers in the world, helping to shape the West Indies into arguably the greatest Test team in cricket history.

Will Left victory in Sri Lanka deliver economic sovereignty plan, go beyond 'tired' IMF agenda?

By Atul Chandra, Vijay Prashad*  On September 22, 2024, the Sri Lankan election authority announced that Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance won the presidential election. Dissanayake, who has been the leader of the left-wing JVP since 2014, defeated 37 other candidates, including the incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP) and his closest challenger Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. 

Will Bangladesh go Egypt way, where military ruler is in power for a decade?

By Vijay Prashad*  The day after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, I was on the phone with a friend who had spent some time on the streets that day. He told me about the atmosphere in Dhaka, how people with little previous political experience had joined in the large protests alongside the students—who seemed to be leading the agitation. I asked him about the political infrastructure of the students and about their political orientation. He said that the protests seemed well-organized and that the students had escalated their demands from an end to certain quotas for government jobs to an end to the government of Sheikh Hasina. Even hours before she left the country, it did not seem that this would be the outcome.