30K women removed uterus to avoid wage loss: Nitin Raut
NAGPUR : Congress leader Nitin Raut, who is chairman of the party’s scheduled caste department on Wednesday, wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray urging him to take some significant steps to help the women working in the sugarcane fields of the state.
Mr Raut informed Mr Thackeray, that there are around 30,000 poor women who underwent a hysterectomy, a surgery to remove a woman’s uterus, as they could not work during their menstrual cycle and were not getting paid.
Hysterectomy is a surgery to remove a woman’s uterus. According to Raut, women opted for hysterectomy as they could not work during their menstrual cycle and were not getting paid. Raut urged the chief minister to take requisite measures so that women do not land in a situation where they put their lives at risk to earn a livelihood, reported ANI.
There were reports that the cane-cutting contractors are unwilling to hire women who menstruate, so hysterectomies have become the norm in villages in Beed district.
The Congress leader urged the Maharashtra Chief Minister to take requisite measures so that women do not land in a situation where they put their lives at risk to earn a livelihood.
Thousands of women sugarcane labourers from Beed & Osmanabad have undergone uterus removal surgery. It’s saddening as they did so to avoid few days’ wage loss. I’ve requested CM to address their grievances. Govt will certainly find solution to it.
According to a report in The Hindu in April, lakhs of men and women from the region migrate to work as cane-cutters between October and March. “Contractors draw up contracts with the husband and wife counted as one unit. Cane cutting is a rigorous process and if the husband or wife takes a break for a day, the couple has to pay a fine of Rs 500 per day to the contractor for every break,” the report had said.
It had also quoted some women as saying that the contractors would give them an advance for uterus removing surgery and that the money was later recovered from their wages.
The Congress leader urged the Maharashtra Chief Minister to take requisite measures so that women do not land in a situation where they put their lives at risk to earn a livelihood.
(With Agency Inputs ).
