An undertrial with heart ailments, her death in custody raises uncomfortable questions

The prisoner struggling to stay alive, her husband kept in the dark about her health condition, and an unconsented surgery expose the dark reality of India's criminal justice systemPune, Maharashtra: On January 24, 2021, Kanchan Nannaware (38), an undertrial in Pune’s Yerawada prison, succumbed to cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated. Hailing from Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, Nannaware and her husband Arun Bhelke (48) were associated with activist groups dealing with student and tribal rights, and participated in political and cultural activities for the rights of tribals. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad termed them as members of the Golden Corridor Committee of Maoists, who were trying to recruit cadre from urban areas when in reality they were trying to eke out a living in Pune and avail of treatment for Nannaware’s heart ailment.Nannaware was not convicted in the case and had been awaiting trial for six years when she died in custody. Bhelke, who was also arrested with her and lodged in Yerawada prison, was not even informed about his wife's deteriorating health.With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a bail application (criminal bail application No. 765 of 2020, Kanchan Nannaware Vs State of Maharashtra) was moved to the Bombay High Court. While it was pending, Nannaware's health began to fail rapidly. So, an interim application no. 2136 of 2020 was moved for urgent relief. While this was being heard, Nannaware died after brain surgery in Sassoon General Hospital, Pune. Senior Advocate Gayatri Singh who was arguing for Nannaware's bail then decided to file a writ petition to ensure justice for her. Thus, Criminal Writ Petition No. 432 of 2022 came to be filed in Bombay HC to enquire into the lapses in Yerawada jail as well as Sassoon Hospital.In March 2022, Bhelke filed an affidavit challenging the magisterial inquiry conducted to ascertain the cause of his wife’s death. It said the inquiry was completely silent on the sequence of events that led to her death, acts of omission/commission on the part of public servants that contributed to her death, and whether medical care provided to her was adequate. “The mechanical cause of Nannaware’s death was bleeding in the brain, followed by a heart attack. Here was a person who came in with a heart condition. The prison authorities were well aware of this. By February 2020, they knew she needed a heart-lung transplant. It was a steadily deteriorating condition,” explains Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, who is assisting Gayatri Singh along with Advocate Susan Abraham to fight the case on Bhelke's behalf.Even inside the prison, Nannaware was not kept in appropriate conditions. “During the process of arrest, there is a medical check-up where past medical records and current health condition are examined. However, even after understanding that Nannaware had undergone two heart surgeries and was a prisoner with a sensitive health condition, the authorities kept her in a small and isolated cell in the Phansi Yard of Yerawada jail,” said Bhelke. “We were not allowed to meet each other because even though we were legally married, we used to sign our names differently for official purposes. They asked why she could not sign her name as Kanchan Bhelke. It took a lot of convincing to make them treat us like husband and wife,” he added.Afterwards, they were allowed to meet only on certain occasions. However, after 2020, the frequency of contact was reduced to court dates. Their main communication was happening through letters.“In the Phansi Yard, her physical and mental health worsened and she would experience breathlessness in that claustrophobic condition,” said Bhelke. Later, the authorities moved her to general barracks where the prison cell was comparatively airy and had a fan.When asked about the medical check-ups done at the point of prison entry, forensic medicine expert Dr Savior Suresh told 101Reporters that following the magistrate's order, the convict/accused should be taken to the government hospital, where the duty doctors fill up a proforma. "This is mandatory. If the accused/convict has any previous medical history of illness, they have the right to express this to the doctor during examination. The doctor should decide if the convict/accused should be sent to a higher centre/same hospital for treatment.”He added that during holidays or odd hours, the case is presented before the magistrate at their residence. In such cases, the accused may not be presented before the magistrate and the remand order is passed based on the examining doctor’s report, in which there is a possibility that the junior examining doctor might be influenced by higher authorities to hide the actual medical condition. Dr Suresh further noted that the standard proforma is not sufficient to convey the medical condition completely to the judiciary. "Also, since the proforma is mandatory, it is used as a routine form-filling practice without conveying the complications," he noted. Section 8, which substitutes Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, has laid down the rules regarding the examination of an arrested person:“(1) When any person is arrested, he shall be examined by a medical officer in the service of Central or state governments and in case the medical officer is not available, by a registered medical petitioner soon after the arrest is made: Provided that where the arrested person is a female, the examination of the body shall be made only by or under the supervision of a female medical officer, and in case the female medical officer is not available, by a female registered medical practitioner. (2) The medical officer or a registered medical practitioner so examining the arrested person shall prepare a record of such examination, mentioning therein any injuries or marks of violence upon the persons arrested, and the approximate time when such injuries or marks may have been inflicted. (3) Where an examination is made under subsection (1), a copy of the report of such examination shall be furnished by the medical officer or registered medical practitioner, as the case may be, to the arrested person or the person nominated by such arrested person.” The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) (points 9 and 10 dealing with sections 37 and 39) has laid down the medical rights of undertrials. According to Section 39 of the Prisons Act, 1894, in every prison, a hospital or proper place for the reception of sick prisoners shall be provided. The power of sending the prisoner to the hospital lies with the jail superintendent. The superintendent may, if in his opinion a prisoner requires special treatment in a hospital outside the prison, send him to such hospital subject to the prisoner or any relative or friend of the prisoner executing such bond and abiding by such other conditions, if any, as the state government may by rule or order prescribe. Any period during which the prisoner is undergoing treatment in such hospital or spent by him in going thereto or returning therefrom shall be deemed to be part of the period of his detention in the prison.Bharadwaj said that they were presenting three points of argument to challenge the magisterial inquiry conducted into Nannaware's death. "The prison authorities and court are held responsible for the events that led to her death because Nannaware was in judicial custody. Simply noting the immediate cause of death is not enough. As per the first argument, the prison manual has provisions for people coming in with critical health conditions. If the health is worsening, the jail superintendent and medical officer can write to the court, and the prisoners can be permitted to go home or can be kept in a cell with better conditions. If the jail authorities did not have enough resources to provide adequate medical care, they could have informed the court. However, they chose to downplay the severity of her condition until it got worse. The chief medical officer is responsible for providing an independent and professional report based on the prisoner's health. However, they denied medical bail on the grounds of the gravity of charges made under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.The second point of argument was that Nannaware was a person with a heart condition. In prison, she was constantly complaining of headaches and vertigo. Subsequently, on January 12, 2021, she was taken to a hospital where she was advised to undergo operative intervention to correct Acute Subdural Hematoma. According to records, this surgery had a very high cardiac risk and included the risk of death on the table. Two days later, Nannaware was admitted to Sassoon Hospital on an emergency basis. Neither her husband nor any other relative was informed. The hospital sent a letter to the superintendent seeking consent for the surgery.  The superintendent falsely stated that no relative was present to give consent and signed himself a standard/proforma letter, which read “in the interest of saving the life of the prisoner as his/her relatives are not available for giving consent". “A separate consent letter was also purportedly signed by Nannaware, but we are contesting the integrity of this fact in the court. Nannaware’s signature does not exactly match. But even if she did sign, was she in the right mind? Because giving consent to this surgery was like signing her own death warrant,” explained Advocate Abraham. “Even the cardiologist who was asked to give clearance for this surgery stated that it involves high cardiac risk, including the risk of death on the table,” she added.Thirdly, the prison authorities kept Bhelke in the dark about his wife's condition. “No consent was taken from me before she underwent the surgery. On January 17, 2021, when I approached the jailer, he told me that she underwent surgery after getting a bleed in her brain. I asked him why they operated on her brain when she had a serious heart condition and had undergone two heart surgeries even before 2014, the year we both were arrested. The jailer said that it was the superintendent’s call,” explained Bhelke. Both Abraham and Bharadwaj believed that as Nannaware’s health began deteriorating after a point, the prison authorities knew they could not handle it. "Had her husband known about these happenings, his hue and cry would have captured attention,” they said.On the provisions that can prevent violations that happened in Nannaware's case, they said, “There are sources like jail manual and independent opinions of medical officers, but there was an oversight on the part of prison authorities.” Visitor inspection and NHRC inspection are some of the provisions available on paper, which can monitor prisoners and their condition. However, they do not translate into ground reality. It is very hard for the voices of prisoners to be heard, Bharadwaj added.“Our criminal justice system is failing. Just like there are Nelson Mandela rules, we can have Kanchan Nannaware rules and guidelines for a code that needs to be followed by prison authorities. This will force rule setting to avoid such deaths in future,” the advocates stated.Bhelke was convicted over his alleged links with the banned CPI-Maoist in 2022. His sentence was supposed to be for eight years, but as he was an undertrial since 2014, Jail Officer Dayanand Sorte passed an order releasing him in April 2023. As Bhelke and his advocates continue to fight for justice, the former plans to publish a compilation of letters that Nannaware wrote to him while in prison. “It will be a compilation of conversations between two companions about the political and social realities from the lens of a prisoner,” said Bhelke. After seeing Nannaware’s health worsening, he suggested that she write about her life. She wrote three notebooks, but only one was handed over to Bhelke by the court. However, he still plans to complete the book and publish it.This story was originally published as part of the Crime and Punishment project in collaboration with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Cover photo - Representative image/ AI-generated using Canva

Odisha model, ecosystem services incentive and the way forward to mainstreaming millets

Odisha Millet Mission provides farmers with equipment, optimises procurement mechanism and serves millet through PDS. Besides emulating this model across the country, farmers should be paid for the ecosystem services they provide by cultivating millets Pune, Maharashtra: When the United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets, it started conversations around these so-called forgotten foods — high in nutrition and dietary fibre, but with relatively lower carbon and water footprint than wheat and rice. Despite traditional millets being easy to grow without chemical fertilisers and pesticides, farmers are still not enthusiastic about taking up their cultivation.The overall production of traditional ragi (finger millet) in India was 1.59 million tonnes in 2022-23 against the 1.7 million tonnes in 2021-22. Compared to the emerging hybrid varieties, the production of traditional varieties is low. “We do not have a large ragi production,” attests Sachin Jain from Vikas Samvad, an organisation in Madhya Pradesh working on issues of child health and food security.Farmers sell millets mostly to middlemen, but do not benefit much even as urban health-conscious consumers pay high prices when buying them. “We need to optimise the processing of millets from harvesting to procurement and distribution,” says Jain, while suggesting that the millet ecosystem should be more decentralised with panchayats involved in policy decisions. "The government appears to have good intentions to increase millets demand for the benefit of farmers as well as consumers. To achieve this, the first step would be to increase the public procurement of millets. However, at present, government procurement of pearl millet and sorghum is only 1 to 3% of their total domestic production, as compared to 45 to 70% for wheat and rice. The situation of finger millet is a bit better, with about 15% of the total production being procured by government agencies. It is good news that the government has planned to procure more than two million tonnes of millets during 2023-24, however coordinated efforts between Central and state governments will be needed to achieve this," reads an opinion piece by ICRISAT researchers.Developing high yielding hybrid varieties of millets is a way to ensure more production, but it comes at a cost. “As productivity increases, nutrition levels decrease,” Devinder Sharma, a food policy analyst and researcher of Indian agriculture, tells 101Reporters. He says a steep nutritional decline between 16 and 45% has been found in hybrid seeds, mostly developed by agricultural institutes and colleges.“Copper is one of the essential minerals good for the body. Some of the hybrid varieties of millets have shown a significant fall in copper levels compared to the traditional millets,” he adds.A group of millet farmers working (Photo - Representative image/ AI Canva)The sidelined grainHigh yielding varieties of wheat and rice were introduced during the Green Revolution of the 1960s, in a bid to alleviate hunger and poverty. Despite a slew of agricultural initiatives and technological advancements aimed at increasing productivity, ensuring food security, income and employment generation, reducing price volatility and attaining regional balance in the crops, the impact was not all rainbows and unicorns.“Post-Green Revolution, the production of wheat and rice doubled due to initiatives of the government, but the production of other food crops such as indigenous rice varieties and millets declined,” reads the research article, Impact of Green Revolution on Indigenous Crops in India. Millets started diminishing from the agricultural landscape as farmers shifted to wheat and rice. Being commodities listed under the Public Distribution System (PDS), the demand for wheat and rice increased over time, providing farmers an incentive to cultivate them.“Developing high yielding varieties was necessary at that time. Since the production rate of traditional millets is low even today, we need to develop hybrid varieties with minimum decline in nutrients when compared to that of traditional varieties. The fact that millets are primarily known for their health benefits should be taken into consideration while developing the hybrids,” Jain says.Social stigma was another factor leading to a decline in demand as millets have long been associated with rural diets and hence considered the food for the economically disadvantaged. They are often seen as inferior to rice and wheat. Millets also faced more discrimination in urban and upwardly mobile circles than in rural areas. The stigma is rooted in cultural biases and misconceptions, perpetuating the idea that consuming millets is a marker of poverty or a lack of access to more refined food choices. “Overcoming social stigma required efforts to raise awareness about the nutritional benefits of millets, promote their versatility in culinary applications, and challenge prevailing stereotypes to encourage a more inclusive and sustainable food culture in India. Civil society organisations and NGOs were successful in erasing this stigma. Today, the millet market is targeting urban, health conscious people who are willing to pay a higher price for the right nutrition,” says Sharma. “The first step to incentivise farmers and mainstream millets would be by bringing them under the PDS. This way the producers will also get to consume them. Right now, the millet market is targeting the urban buyers, but rural communities are the ones that need them the most,” says Jain, while agreeing that Odisha Millets Mission (OMM) can be a good model to emulate. There have been talks about including millets in the PDS in Karnataka, Meghalaya and Telangana, but only Odisha is doing it practically.“Special Programme for Promotion of Millets in Tribal Areas or Odisha Millets Mission started in 2017 to address nutritional security in Odisha through increased millet production and consumption, especially for the indigenous [and often vulnerable] communities. Other important objectives of the mission were to promote machinery for post-harvest processing, improve the productivity of millets, include millets in the PDS, Integrated Child Development Services [ICDS] and other large scale government programmes, facilitate the export of millets and millet-based products from Odisha, and facilitate Farmer Producer Organisations and self-help groups [SHGs] through government departments geared towards technical product and process innovations,” write Pritha Banerjee and Shomita Kundu in their field notes for International Growth Centre.  A picture of millet crop (Photo - Representative image/AI Canva)Emulate, empowerAccording to OMM website, millet farmers get a maximum incentive of Rs 26,500 per hectare over a period of five years. If the method of cultivation used is System of Millets Intensification for ragi and non-ragi millets, incentives are Rs 10,000, Rs 7,500, Rs 5,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 2,000 from the first to fifth year, in that order. For ragi cultivation using line sowing or line transplanting method, incentives are Rs 7,500, Rs 5,000, Rs 3,000, respectively, in the first three years and Rs 2,000 in the next two years. Besides providing tractors, weeders and other equipment to farmers, OMM has optimised mandi procurement mechanism for millets. "OMM aims at providing protection against losses. Price benchmarking has been done for non-ragi millets, too. We are promoting both hybrid and local seed varieties based on the geographical conditions of the region," says an OMM official, on condition of anonymity."Apart from PDS, millets have been included in ICDS and other government schemes," the official adds, while mentioning how millets have been promoted at the anganwadi level. OMM has also attempted to introduce millets in hospital foods, hotel menus, gymnasiums and health and wellness centres.The products made out of millets have undergone value addition. Women SHGs in the state have turned millets into an income idea. "A farmer in Odisha is better off because of OMM," agrees the official.Millets provide a wide range of health benefits (Photo - Representative image/AI Canva)A much-needed incentiveAccording to the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, “ecosystem services are the benefits that an ecosystem provides to the society through ecosystem functions, that is the capacity of natural processes and components to provide goods and services to satisfy human needs directly or indirectly.”Sharma thinks farmers should get this incentive for taking up millet cultivation. “They should be incentivised and paid for the ecosystem services that they are providing to the society through millet agriculture. Millets are good for public health, environment and soil since they do not require any chemicals to grow,” he points out. “Why cannot we give this minimum cost to the farmers for protecting the environment,” he questions, while stating that the United Nations Environmental Programme already has a framework in place for valuation of ecosystem services, but it has not been used for any crop till date in India. Health benefitsMillets were a part of India’s staple diet up until a few years ago. Later, both urban and rural communities strayed away from their traditional diets and turned to wheat and rice. “The food plates in rural pockets of India looked much diversified before. People used to make rotis out of whichever millet was predominant in the region. For example, jowar [sorghum] or bajra [pearl millet] bhakri. But nowadays wheat and rice are distributed to them under different schemes,” Preetilata Gaikwad, manager, women empowerment and health, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR).Over 6,000 people attended the anaemia detection camps that WOTR organised in the villages of Maharashtra in 2021-2022. “Due to lack of good nutrition, pregnant women are increasingly being detected with iron deficiencies leading to anaemia,” says Prithviraj Gaikwad, Senior Agri Officer, Climate Resilient Agriculture, WOTR.Based on their field visits, the researchers and implementers observed that there was a shortage of food despite the distribution of rice and wheat free of cost under several schemes, including the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. There were cases where women took home food from anganwadis allotted for a single person, but the whole family depended on it. Children could be snacking on packets of chips costing Rs 5 or 10 to fill their appetite, instead of a wholesome meal. Even adolescent girls were not getting periods regularly due to a lack of balanced diet.“Millets such as ragi, bajra and jowar are rich in iron, calcium, magnesium and fibre. Including millets in the diet can help combat nutritional deficiencies, especially prevalent issues like iron-deficiency anaemia in pregnant women,” says Karishma Shah, a certified integrated nutritionist and health psychologist, when asked whether the high malnutrition levels in Maharashtra were connected with their non-consumption of millets. On the impact of the International Year of Millets campaign, Sachin Jain says, "It certainly has started many conversations. We are in a transition phase. The solution is to optimise the processing of millets from production to consumption. Then it will successfully reach the demographic that needs it the most."Edited by Rekha PulinnoliCover Photo - Millet farmers in the fields (Photo - Representative image/AI Canva)

Wet famine, new diseases give sleepless nights to farmers of Gogalwadi

As crop failure becomes a norm, farmers in Maharashtra struggle to get access to crop insurance schemes for which online applications should be submittedPune, Maharashtra: “Look at these rotten tomatoes. Forget taking a basketful to sell in the market, even finding a few that are good enough to consume has become a task,” said Sashikant Ramdas Gogawale, a farmer from Gogalwadi in Pune’s Haveli taluka.This year, ola dushkal (wet famine) has rendered a blow to the farmers who are already facing the after-effects of crop damage during the pandemic. Wet famine is characterised by a shortage of food resources due to too much rain. It is a condition where crops, fruits or vegetables on a farm are damaged, making them completely unfit for consumption or sale.“We were not anticipating such a downpour. Tomato harvest was good until the pandemic. Disruption in farm work during the lockdown and loss of market access affected us badly. The subsequent spread of new diseases worsened our condition,” Sashikant explained his farm’s deterioration over the last two years. He is fully aware of the damage that pesticides and weedicides cause in the long run. “Spraying too much pesticide is ruining the soil. But we have to use it to protect the current crop. This is the irony.”Besides tomatoes, the combined impact of the pandemic and wet famine is significant in the case of fig farmers. The fig harvest season in Gogalwadi starts in February. So when the first COVID-19 wave hit India in March 2020 and led to a subsequent lockdown, the demand and sales dropped.Reshma Gogawale working on her farm, trying to revive it from the impact of wet drought (Photo: Shrikant Gogawale)“We had no option but to consume as many fruits as possible. The rest were left unplucked, which caused the trees to rot from inside. In fact, a new variant of crop disease started to affect the trees. It continues to infect the plants till date,” said Shrikant Gogawale, whose family owns a fig farm in the village. “One of my friends had over 300 fig trees. Now the number is down to around 50. A variant of Anthracnose, a fungal disease that emerged during the pandemic, destroyed most of them,” he added. Even custard apples and guava trees on Shrikant’s farm took a beating. “All the fruits are turning black. These crops cannot withstand heavy rains. We plant and harvest according to the seasonal cycles. However, climate change has disrupted this pattern. Even foreseeing weather trends for a few upcoming weeks has become difficult,” he elaborated.Gogalwadi has only a few women farmers. One can barely see a woman working in the fields here. "Actually, I am an anganwadi teacher. At times, I work in these tomato fields to help out my husband. The fruits are rotting and they need to be picked and packed quickly because rains are again likely to pound this afternoon," said Reshma Gogawale, Laxman Gogawale's wife. Compensation eludes many PIK Vima Yojana 2022, a crop insurance initiative of the Maharashtra government, aims at protecting the food producers in the State. ‘PIK Nuksan Bharpai’ (damage compensation) grants insurance amounts to the beneficiaries to tide over the crop losses caused by natural calamities. The Central government also offers Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, a scheme with a similar purpose. However, farmers of Gogalwadi have not found these schemes very helpful.Tomatoes fallen on the waterlogged farm, rendered unfit for selling or consumption (Photo: Shrikant Gogawale)Dattatray Gogawale, a farmer who harvests multiple crops such as jowar, rice, pulses, figs and onions, said he was told to register online to get compensation for the damage caused due to the lockdown and wet famine. “A few of us have smartphones, but getting data network is difficult here. We are required to upload images of our farms to apply for compensation. Though we are educated, navigating through the online system is a challenge.”Dattatray said he was told to file a panchanama (evidence of the crisis) when wet famine struck. “But even after doing it, no one reached out. If we do it offline also, the gram sevaks are supposed to pay a visit to the field and see if the farmer is eligible for crisis compensation. But they did not come,” he said, pointing to the lack of transparency. When questioned about this, gram sevak  Jyoti Tambe directed this reporter to Talathi Tamboli (Talathi refers to a revenue officer). "This is the officer assigned to visit the farms in Gogalwadi, note down the complaints, register panchanama and other documents required for Nuksan Bharpai Scheme,” Tambe said. Multiple attempts to reach Tamboli proved to be futile.This year, wet famine has rendered a blow to the farmers in Maharashtra. Wet famine is characterised by a shortage of food resources due to too much rain (Photo: Shrikant Gogawale)‘E-Pik Pahani’, which means checking the crops through the photos uploaded online on the official government portal, is a service gram sevaks recommend farmers to use for registering their damaged farms for crisis compensation. However, sparse mobile network and lack of technical knowledge have made farmers shy away from applying online for Nuksan Bharpai. “At times, we visit the district office where our names and details are taken down. But the compensation amount does not reach us,” said Dattatray’s family. To this, gram sevak Tambe stated, "The officials concerned will be sent to the farm to examine its status. The compensation amount will be given if the farmer is eligible."However, the problems of farmers like Dattatray do not end with getting compensation. The newly emerging crop diseases and unpredictable rainfall patterns have made farming unsustainable. “We are investing in it by buying different types of pesticides and adopting agricultural technologies to improve crop health. But the rains are washing it all out. Forget about profit, we are not even getting back the invested amount,” Dattatray said, while reminiscing how simple farming was earlier. Seasonal cycles could be tracked then, and farmers used to have their plans chalked out for the entire year.“There is no doubt that our village is progressing. We have access to primary education. We have proper roads and most areas are well lit. There are small clinics, where services of doctors are available. But untimely rains are hampering progress,” said Shrikant, calling attention to waterlogging and damage caused to roads.   Walking through his field wearing a muddy raincoat and wiping the sweat from his brow, Sashikant requested, “Take a photo of these fallen tomatoes. It captures the reality of why farmers commit suicide.”Edited by Rekha PulinnoliThe cover image is of Laxman Gogawale showing rotten tomato yield of his farm in Gogalwadi, Pune, Maharashtra; captured by Shrikant Gogawale.

Same hours, Less pay: The cost of being a woman farmhand in rural Maharashtra

Female workers are paid only half of what men manage to get, but they are hesitant to ask for more fearing loss of employmentSatara, Maharashtra: Sweat trickles down her face as Anita (50) toils under the arid skies of Jadhavwadi village in Maharashtra’s Satara district. She is not alone though. A group of 15 female farmhands has been assigned the task of harvesting onions, something that takes up their whole day.  “We all came around 10 am in a Tempo Traveller, and will be here until 5 to 6 pm. In between, we take a lunch break for an hour. At the end of the day, Rs 200 is paid to each of us,” says Anita, readjusting the thin cotton scarf on her head.Around 1 pm, the women dressed in sarees and oversized cotton shirts gather in a circle with cloth bags dangling from their exhausted shoulders. They settle down in a clearing in the farm and take out lunch boxes containing bhakri, kanda and bhaji.Soon, two others in the group join in carrying drinking water on their heads in huge steel pots (kalshi). The women usually take turns to fetch water from the other end of the farm. But male labourers do not do this task. Asked about it, Anita says, “We do it just as we take care of everyone at home.” A deep dive into disparitiesJadhavwadi and Bijaudi are two relatively less populated villages in Phaltan block. The temperature here may not fall under the ‘extremely hot’ category, but it undoubtedly drains the energy of farm labourers. In addition, there are not many trees or man-made shelters under which workers can take rest. Unlike their male counterparts, female labourers are in demand here. According to Anita, they do not have to scramble for work. “The farm owners find us. We move from one farm to another with ease.”Unlike their male counterparts, the women farm labourers take turns to fetch water from the other end of the farm for drinking purposes. The males on the field too depend on them to avail water (Photo: Pranoti Abhyankar)Their popularity hinges on the fact that they need to be paid only half of what men manage to get, despite doing the same work for the same amount of time. “At the end of the day, we also have to think about saving money,” says Mamusheth, a farm owner.  A conversation with Vijay Bhosale, a farm contractor, reveals how most of them perceive gender inequality in daily wages as a social norm. “This is what was followed by our forefathers. I know it is unequal, but this is how the system is,” explains Bhosale.Sympathising with the farm owners, a woman in the group says they are fine with the Rs 200 they receive. “Men ask for Rs 400 and above. Maybe, the employers cannot afford that much.”  All of them admit that they do not really ask for more wages for fear of loss of employment. “Something is better than nothing, right?” says Anita, to which others nod. Furthermore, they feel there is almost no room for negotiations.In 2017, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment raised the minimum daily wages of unskilled agricultural labourers from Rs 160 to Rs 300 per day in C-category towns. If States have higher minimum wages than the one declared by the Centre, then the former will prevail. As per the revised minimum wages in Maharashtra, even unskilled labourers in zone 3 are entitled to Rs 420.54 per day. From plain observation, it is clear that all the rates mentioned in different policy guidelines of the State and Central governments are higher than the amount women farmhands in Jadhavwadi and Bijaudi are paid.According to a statewise study by the Labour Bureau of the Government of India, the average daily wages for male and female agricultural labourers in rural Maharashtra in September 2016 were Rs 192.33 and Rs 135.31, respectively. The rates across India at that point of time were Rs 252.38 and Rs 195.11. Despite the State government’s initiative to close the gaps in daily wages since 2016, it has been overlooked in rural areas. A news report highlights a similar situation in Palghar’s Sadakwadi, where women work in farms for low wages, while men migrate to nearby areas for construction or industry-based work.  Unfair to the coreMost women found working in Jadhavwadi are middle-aged (between 45 and 65 years). The tedious work affects their health to a great extent. However, they take injections to kill the pain and get back to work.The distress employment during the post-pandemic period has compelled most of them to take up extra work. In fact, some were not into farm labour prior to the pandemic. This year’s unprecedented rains also added to their woes by diminishing the prospects of daily employment.  “Our children in cities used to send us money. That was enough to sustain ourselves. Everything came to a halt when COVID-19 struck. Some lost jobs and could not afford to support us anymore. So we took up farm labour,” they explain.Woman farm labourers get paid only half of what men manage to get, despite doing the same work for the same amount of time (Photo: Pranoti Abhyankar)Most of the women never went to school. Only two or three reached high school, but dropped off after household chores increased. Soon enough, they were married off.Due to lack of both education and technological know-how, the idea of women voicing their opinions unapologetically and confidently has not picked up here. “We do not voice our problems generally. We just listen to our employers,” Anita says. Other women echo her when they say, “Yes, there are times when we feel we are not heard. But then, we also do not know enough. So we make peace with that fact.” The distress employment during the post-pandemic period has compelled most of the women in Jadhavwadi to take up extra work (Photo: Pranoti Abhyankar)Most of the farmhands stay at Dahiwadi, and take a tempo to reach home. “Once we get there, we will cook and eat dinner and go to sleep, to repeat the same cycle the next day,” they say. If they do manage to get some free time, they use it to clean up the house and organise kitchen supplies.Anita says the money she receives from work covers her family’s basic needs and electricity and gas bills. Her husband is also a farmhand, but does not get work as often as she does. Though she tries to set aside some amount to buy something for herself, it does not always happen. “Let me know if there is anything we can do in Pune. We will come,” she laughs, as she tells this reporter.As the lunch break ends, Anita says, “We also want to work in the city for a while and earn more. Let us know if there is a job that suits us. Take down my number, please.”Edited by Rekha PulinnoliThe cover image is of a group of women farm labourers in Jadhavwadi, Satara, Maharashtra, sorting the harvested onions, captured by Pranoti Abhyankar.