Over 1.4 Lakh Labourers Toil in Maharashtra Sugar Mills Without Safety Measures

Pune: Sanjay Aladar, 37, who is currently harvesting  sugarcane at Palus village in Maharashtra, stays at the farm and shares a common toilet and washroom with other labourers. Scared of transmission of COVID-19 that is spreading in the state, he now wants to return to his village in Solapur, as the sugar mill he works for has not provided the labourers food, a safe place to live in or any medicine or sanitiser.

Sanjay, his wife and nine more couples from the same village in Sangli district, also struggle everyday to get water from the nearby wells as local residents refuse to allow them access to the water available there.

image Courtesy: Deepak Nagargoje

Sanjay is among over 1.4 lakh labourers working for sugar mills across Maharashtra. Some of them have left, and some are stuck in places where they were working. Despite orders by the state government, sugar mills have not provided these labourers safe places where they can follow social distancing rules, or food, soaps, sanitisers or medicines.

This year 155 sugar mills are crushing 501 lakh tonnes sugarcane to produce 558.49 lakh quintals of sugar. The sugar industry employs a total 1.65 lakh workers and over eight lakh other workers are engaged for harvesting (sugarcane cutting).

Amid the countrywide lockdown, the Maharashtra government has included sugar under essential services under the Essential Commodities Act. The state has ordered all mills to avail shelter, food, help required to maintain social distancing and medicines in the wake of the coronavirus raging across the state, which has over 300 cases so far.

As per data on April 1, 2020 of Sugar Commissionarate of Maharashtra, 21 sugar mills including 17 cooperative and four private are still functioning. And labourers in 34 mills, including the 21 that are running, are living in places where they were working. The number of these labourers is 1.40 lakh.

When they came to Palus in Sangli district to work four months ago, Sanjay and his wife were paid Rs 1 lakh by Rajarambapu Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Walva in Islampur. The sugar mills here engage over  8,000 labourers.

Sanjay and nine more couples from the same village in Solapur are staying in Palus village. “ The sugar mill has not provided anything though the mill owners keep telling the media about the facilities they providing to the labourers. We work for 10 hours since six in the morning. The farmers nearby have asked us not draw water from their wells for drinking. The villagers look suspiciously at us and do not cooperate with us when we go to buy food items,” said Sanjay.

image Courtesy: Deepak Nagargoje

These 10 couples have been really scared since they got to know that 23 people from Islampur in Sangli, were infected with COVID-19. Since then, they have been trying to return to their village.

“Masks and sanitisers are over in the nearby medicine shops. We work at the farm and maintaining distance while working is impossible. But the mill has not provided us any masks. We want to return home safely as my two kids are waiting for us,” Sanjay said.

Ravindra Suryavanshi, a tractor owner, who transports sugarcane from the farm to mills, said they needed permission from the police to travel and don’t have any letter from any politician or sugar mill owner.

Svita Sargad, a labourer,  who works for Krishna Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana in Karad in Satara district, which employs over 4,000 labourers, said: “All the women cook food with firewood in front of our huts and reach the farms together by 9 a.m with cooked food. We are now worried about our parents and kids back home and want to return.”

Laxman Hake, an activist who works for rights of sugarcane labour through Mandeshi Ustod Kamgar Sanghatana (Mandeshi Sugarcane cutting Labour Organisation), told NewsClick that most of the labourers were from Marathwada and Solapur districts. “The local leaders have not come forward to rescue these labourers and also did not ask mills to provide sanitisers, soaps, water or food to the labour despite orders from the government,” he said.

Hake questioned how the government included sugar in essential commodities? “As soon as the Maharashtra government started measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus from the second week of March, sugar mills should have stopped operations. But they don’t want to suffer losses as the season is in the final stage and will end by April end,” he added.

Till a week ago, sugar mills in Maharashtra were forcing labourers to work despite they being reluctant and scared of the virus. They wanted to return to their villages. After some activists voiced their concerns, some sugar mills have stopped pressuring labourers to work, but they have not yet provided any facilities to them.

Saurav Rao, commissioner, Sugar Commissionarate, howevr, told NewsClick that all sugar mills that were currently running or where labourers were camping were providing facilities to them. When told that labourers were complaining about mills not providing shelter, food or medicines, he said, “I will look into this.”

Dipak Nagargoje, an activist in Beed, also alleged that “many sugar mills were forcing labourers to work till March 29, as if they were forced labour. Labourers across mills had to protest and strike, omly then did the administration compel mills to allow labourers not to work.”

Another industry expert, on condition of anonymity, said most of the sugar mills were owned by MLAs/ministers in Maharashtra or their associates. The expert said if the state government was implementing social distancing measures so seriously, why are these labours not being protected? He also questioned the decision of adding sugar in the list of essential commodities.

The writer is an independent journalist based in Pune