She was 14 years old when the marriage took place. Had to go south with her husband to cut sugarcane. Tin hut in an empty field. Sari curtain instead of door. The contractor would come after finding it deserted and leave with a lot of fuss. We couldn't do anything - not even cry wholeheartedly.
With eighty stomachs, 3 thousand kg sugarcane was loaded on the truck every day. The heart trembled more than the feet trembled while climbing the unpaved wooden ladder. Now all the hassle is over! At the age of 30, the uterus was removed. There will be no period and no fear of having a child!
Mahananda is from Beed district of Maharashtra, telling her story stuck-tempered in Marathi Mili Hindi. The Beed, where the land is known for its cracks. There are wells here, but no water. There are farms, but not farmers. Surrounded by rocky ground and thorny trees, the only juicy thing in Beed is sugarcane. As soon as you enter the area, its rustle and sweetness starts to dissolve on the tongue, but wait! The women here are paying a huge price for this juice. They are getting the womb removed - so that periods do not come - and carrying a heavy bundle on their head they can gallop up and down the stairs.
The summer of 2019 was about to pass, when the Maharashtra State Commission's report created a sensation. The report was from Beed district, in which it was told that women working in sugarcane fields are getting the uterus removed at the age of 20-30 years. In the next three years from the year 2016, more than 4 thousand women got the uterus removed as if someone gets a haircut during the summer season.
They have their reasons. Money is deducted on taking leave during periods. Molestation and rape are common when they go to another state for wages. To get rid of it, she started removing the uterus itself. Many areas of Beed are now called villages without women. Bhaskar's team measured many villages in order to meet these 'innocent' women.
Our first stop was Kasari village. The afternoon of March also got hot as if it was the month of May. Stumped trees on the side of the road. There were many shops in between. It was written on these shops selling sugarcane-juice – 'Aamchyakade Usacha Taza and Thand Ras Millel' i.e. we get fresh and cold sugarcane juice here. We reached the Kasari border while wetting our lips with the heat.
Here the first meeting happened with Mahananda. Seeing this woman wearing matching bangles on an olive-colored sari, it was clear that she had come prepared to meet us. Carrying sugarcane in the field, the saree is wrapped tightly around the feet and the name-name bangles in the hands. She says – either keep grooming or just fill your stomach! Between and at the end of the interview, Mahananda sips like a friend, but her tone changes as soon as the camera is turned on. She stutters while speaking and then speaks calmly, so that the tinge of pain does not make her weak.
She says – got married at the age of about 14. At the age when girls play dolls and dolls, I started taking care of the house. Farming on a piece of land and making bhat-bhakri (bread) for all. Although it was easy, the real difficulty came when I had to go to Karnataka to work in the fields. There they would work in pairs. Husband used to cut sugarcane, I would make bundles and put them on the truck. Carrying a bundle of 30 kg at a time on the head and carrying it on the truck through the untidy ladder swinging in the air. I would cry.
Had worked hard, but this work demanded blood. Mahananda remembers – The bleeding started increasing during periods. Carrying the burden, the cloth would get wet with the sack, but in those foreign villages neither we could get sanitary pads, nor did we have money, nor the time to go to the shop to buy all these things.
Comments
Post a Comment