Climate crisis in Maharashtra's Beed forces women to choose between 'wombs' and livelihoods

In the semiarid lands of Maharashtras Beed district women face a stark choice endure excruciating menstrual pain or risk losing their livelihoods Climateinduced droughts have ravaged the region pushing families into poverty and forcing women to migrate in search of work in sugarcane fieldsHowever the demanding nature of this labour coupled with exploitative contracts leaves women with few options but to undergo hysterectomies to avoid missing work and incurring financial penalties according to a new paper from the International Institute for Environment and Development IIEDLata Waghmare who migrates to Karnataka with her husband every year to work as cane cutters said she delivered her second baby in a sugarcane field scared of taking a leave postdelivery because of khada leave charges The penalty for skipping one days work is in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 1000 I got back to work five days after the delivery To feed the baby I carried her to the field with me she told IIEDWhile carrying the cane bundles I kept her on the floor in one corner The tractor ran over my baby I lost my child she added The 34yearold Dalit woman returned to work the following day unable to take leave to grieve I bled for a month after the delivery In March 2010 I went to Beed and got my uterus removed The doctor told me that lifting heavy bundles and not taking rest postdelivery led to the bleeding she saidHysterectomies of this kind are still taking place despite widespread outcry in the country The procedure performed mostly in private clinics can leave women with lasting pain and mental health problems Researchers surveyed 423 households in two different areas of Beed for the paper titled Women Paying the Cost of Climate Crisis with their WombsOf the total people from 253 households migrated to work in the sugar industry The majority of those migrating for work said they cut sugarcane during the harvest season Local labour contractors known as mukkadams typically hire husbandandwife teams or jodis to work in pairs not through formal contracts but informal agreementsA typical day for these labourers involves shifts ranging from 12 to 16 hours throughout the sixmonth harvest period Men will usually cut the cane while the women will tie and stack bundles These pairs are often subjected to wage deductions for work missed creating a fear of taking any leave Jayashree Owhal a 45yearold cane cutter from Kathawada village in Beed district told the researchers My menstrual cramping became unbearable after a point I went to see a gynaecologist in Beed he suggested I should stop lifting heavy bundles but that was the only source of income for us So I decided to get the hysterectomy done and get rid of this every month pain and stainOther women described having nothing to use as sanitary products other than the clothes they use to carry the cane bundles These are often left covered in pesticides and chemicals with tiny cane particles stuck to them Ritu Bharadwaj a principal researcher for IIED said When we talk about the losses incurred and the damage done by climate change were not just talking about flooded apartments in New York or scorched hillsides in Greece These womens experiences are also a result of climate change which has decimated their livelihoods and some of what they have lost their dignity good health in some cases their lives is difficult to quantifyThe IIED said drought stood out as the most common reason for migration and more than half the women 5573 per cent from households that migrated had undergone a hysterectomy compared to less than a fifth from households that stayed in Beed 1706 per cent Some told IIED they were still in their twenties when they underwent the procedureAnalysis of data between 1986 and 2022 shows there has been an average annual decrease in rainfall of about 231 mm per year in Beed with droughts becoming more frequent and more severe Village records and the IIED survey data suggests a notable shift in migration patterns with 5567 per cent having started migrating in the last decade up from 542 per cent three decades agoThis trend correlates with the increasing frequency and severity of drought conditions aggravated by climate change