Cane cutters of parched Marathwada caught in vicious migration circle
Thousands of cane cutter traditionally migrate from their villages in Ahmednagar and Beed districts to western Maharashtra to earn a livelihood
PUNE/BEED: On the very second day of his job as a construction labourer, Avin Pandurang Sangle fell off an under-construction building in Pune and died. The 35-year-old from Kokatwadi Tanda in Ahmednagar district was a sugarcane cutter, but had decided to stay back in Pune for a temporary job after the cutting season ended in April.
Thousands of cane cutters like Sangle traditionally migrate from their villages in Ahmednagar and Beed districts to the sugarcane fields of western Maharashtra to earn a livelihood. This year, thanks to the acute water scarcity in their villages, they have been forced to further migrate to cities like Pune, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane in search of other jobs once the cutting season ends.
Marathwada is reeling under drought-like conditions. The average water stock through 920 small and big dams across the region now stands at 10%, far less than 42% last year in the same period. Jayakwadi Dam, the largest dam in the region, which had a reserve stock of 44% last year, now has a mere 6.35%.
Unsurprisingly, the majoor adda (labour pick-up point) in Pune’s Warje-Malwadi is flooded with cane cutters from the parched Marathwada region. Nagorao Bandu Rathod, 42, and his wife Shobhabai Rathod, 37, from Hingoli district, migrated to Pune in the last week of April after working as cane cutters in Satara district’s Karad. Rathod’s daily wage is at least ₹700 a day while his wife earns ₹500. It is difficult to get work for the whole month but according to the couple, by working 15 to 20 days a month, they get by.
Ganesh Chavan, a 24 year-old from Karjani village in Beed, recently began working as a construction labourer in Pune’s Wakad. He and his wife Jaya earlier worked as cane cutters in Solapur district. Caught in a debt trap last year, when the ₹90,000 advance wages that they got went into treating his paralytic father, Chavan had no choice but to join the contractor this year again.
“Due to water scarcity and a lower agricultural yield, we decided to start cane-cutting work, where we can at least get an assured annual income,” he said. “This year there is no agriculture work available in the village, hence we decided to relocate to Wakad.” Rathod too owns an acre of land but the impending drought has brought all agricultural activity in his village to a grinding halt.
According to Babanrao Mane, president of the Jai Maharashtra Sugarcane Cutter Workers Association, of the 12 lakh cane cutters in the state, 5 lakh to 6 lakh are from villages in Beed. The main source of livelihood here is agriculture and animal rearing, but this year, by the end of April, around 90 per cent of the villagers were forced to migrate with their animals.
“We have been facing water scarcity since February-March,” said 65-year-old Pandurang Barave from Pimplewadi in Beed. “Most of our water sources like wells and hand pumps went dry, necessitating mass migration to cities. Now we are just 15 to 20 elderly people living in the village along with our cattle.”
Pradeep Purandare, retired professor from the Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) in Aurangabad propounded a damning theory. “All 11 dams in Marathwada region are entirely dependent on water coming from outside,” he said. These 11 dams are never filled up, as a result of which the region faces severe water scarcity, which leads to migration. Marathwada is deliberately kept dry so that sugar factories in western Maharashtra can get cheap labour.”
Manisha Tokale, who runs the Jagar Pratishthan’s Women Sugarcane Cutter Sanghatana with over 3,000 members, explained that labour contractors paid workers advance wages of up to 1,50,000, which the workers had to repay by working for five to six months. “If they cannot for any reason, the next year they have no option but to migrate wherever the contractors are to work again,” she said. Tokale claimed that labour contractors deliberately laid debt traps for female cane cutters.
Cane cutters get ₹365 for harvesting 1 tonne (1,000 kg) of sugarcane. For the five months of the harvesting period, a worker can harvest at least 150 tonnes and earn approximately ₹55,000. Till last year, the rate was ₹272, but this year, the government increased it by 34%.
When questioned, Beed district collector Deepa Mudhol-Munde said she had never heard of the second round of migration by cane cutters. “Beed’s cane cutters migrate to western Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka and return after the season’s end,” she said. “We haven’t heard of their not returning due to water scarcity. But we will ask their unions and decide on the further course of action.”
According to the district administration, the approximately 6.43 lakh population of Beed district is sent tankers by May 10 every year, and employment was guaranteed to lakhs of people through schemes like MGNREGA. All the claims apart, Marathwada residents, meanwhile, continue their migratory journeys in search of sustenance.
Stay updated with all the Breaking News and Latest News from Mumbai. Click here for comprehensive coverage of top Cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and more across India along with Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News.
Stay updated with all the Breaking News and Latest News from Mumbai. Click here for comprehensive coverage of top Cities including Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and more across India along with Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News.