Sugarcane Workers Call off Strike Under Pressure from Sugar Mill Owners

A fourteen-day protest by sugarcane harvesters to demand better wages ended after sugar mill owners pressurised the agitating workers to resume work. About 2 lakh sugarcane harvesters, mostly Tribals from Dang district, Vyara in Tapi district in South Gujarat and Dhule and Badwani of Maharashtra, had gone on strike since September 25.

“The sugarcane harvesters, Tribals from parts of South Gujarat and adjoining districts of Maharashtra who migrate every year during the harvest season are paid so meagre wages that they end up taking loan at an interest or advance salary from sugar mill owners. While protesting, these workers were being pressurised each day either to resume work or return the money they owe to the sugar mill workers. Finally, they succumbed to the pressure, as it is their only means of livelihood,” Ramesh Shrivastav, a Gujarat-based activist working with the sugarcane harvesters told the NewsClick.

Every year, the Tribals from these regions migrate to work as sugarcane harvesters in about 16 sugar mills in South Gujarat. Their work involves cutting sugarcane, cleaning, sorting it into bundles and loading the bundles on trucks. For every tonne that is loaded on a truck by a koyta (a pair of labourers), they get paid Rs 238 per day; this rate hasn’t changed in past six years. This apart, a koyta gets paid Rs 60 a month and some jowar for which, equivalent amount is subtracted from their earnings at the end of the season.

After a season of harvest that usually begins around the mid-October and stretches till second week of April, a Tribal koyta takes home around Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000. The meagre wages force them to take loans from sugar mill owners on interest that is to be adjusted from their earning in the next season—thus generating a vicious cycle that a Tribal is almost never able to come out of.

“These Tribal sugarcane harvesters are practically bonded labourers. They don’t get paid and end up taking loans on interest that they can not afford to pay back. They come back to work under the sugar mill owner to pay back the debt. This loan cycle has been going on for years, as the salary the Tribals get is so meagre that it doesn’t run their household for even a month. Besides, they have no option other than to migrate every year for the same job,” said Shrivastav.

Notably, representative of Majur Adhikar Manch, a Gujarat-based labour rights organisation that has been working among the sugarcane harvesters and representing them before district authorities and Labour Department, has stated that the organisation will decide on the next course of action to be taken on the issue.