"Maharashtra Sugarcane Cutters Face Exploitation as Mills Mechanise Rapidly"
Mukadam
a labour contractor who recruits and manages seasonal migrant sugarcane cutters on behalf of sugar mills.
Contractualisation of labour
practice of engaging workers through intermediary contractors to avoid direct employer accountability for welfare and rights.
Maharashtra is India's largest sugar-producing state, accounting for roughly one-third of national sugar output. Sugarcane is cultivated on over 14.87 lakh hectares by approximately 40 lakh farmers, generating an annual industry turnover of around ₹1 lakh crore. The industry supports not only sugar mills but also allied sectors — distilleries, ethanol production, co-generation, and agro-based enterprises — making it structurally significant to the state's economy.
The sugarcane-cutting workforce has historically been drawn from drought-prone districts of Marathwada and Vidarbha — particularly Beed, Latur, Osmanabad (Dharashiv), and Solapur — where rain-fed agriculture is unreliable and alternative employment is scarce. Every year, from October to March, workers migrate in large numbers to the sugarcane-growing belt of western Maharashtra and to states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu. This seasonal migration is not voluntary in any meaningful sense; it is a survival imperative driven by agrarian distress and the near-total absence of local industry.
The Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 and the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 are the primary legislative instruments meant to protect such workers. However, enforcement has been chronically weak, and the intermediary contractor system — locally known as the mukadam system — has historically insulated mills from direct accountability to workers.
The sugarcane-cutting labour system operates through a tripartite structure: sugar mills hire contractors (mukadams), who in turn recruit and manage workers from source districts. Workers are engaged as couples — a unit of husband and wife — but wages are paid exclusively to the male partner, structurally erasing the woman's economic agency. This arrangement also means that a woman's labour is effectively unrecognised and uncompensated in her own name, making her doubly vulnerable.
Working conditions are severe. The workday begins at 3 a.m. and extends for up to 16 hours, with couples expected to cut approximately two tonnes of sugarcane per day. A couple's total seasonal earnings rarely exceed ₹80,000, which, spread over the five-to-six-month season, amounts to wages well below any reasonable living standard. Fines are levied for absences — ₹600 per individual per day, rising to ₹1,200 for a couple — with no exceptions for illness, bereavement, or menstruation. …
Among the following, which one is the least water-efficient crop?
With reference to the current trends in the cultivation of sugarcane in India, consider the following statements:
1.A substantial saving in seed material is made when 'bud chip settlings' are raised in a nursery and transplanted in the main field.
2.When direct planting of setts is done, the germination percentage is better with single-budded setts as compared to setts with many buds.
3.If bad weather conditions prevail when setts are directly planted, single-budded setts have better survival as compared to large setts.
4.Sugarcane can be cultivated using settlings prepared from tissue culture.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
With reference to the cultivation of Kharif crops in India in the last five years, consider the following statements:
1.Area under rice cultivation is the highest.
2.Area under the cultivation of jowar is more than that of oilseeds.
3.Area of cotton cultivation is more than that of sugarcane.
4.Area under sugarcane cultivation has steadily decreased.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
The 'mukadam system' in Maharashtra's sugarcane industry refers to which of the following?
Which of the following legislative instruments primarily governs the rights and welfare of workers who migrate across state boundaries for seasonal agricultural employment in India?
Consider the following statements regarding the conditions of migrant sugarcane cutters in Maharashtra:
1.Wages are paid to couples as a joint unit, with both husband and wife receiving equal individual shares.
2.Sugar mills have argued that contractors, not the mills, are responsible for providing basic amenities to cutters.
3.The Bombay High Court issued a directive in 2025 mandating comprehensive welfare measures for sugarcane cutters.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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