Labour Exploitation in India’s Sugar Industry Raises Urgent Human Rights Concerns

Klaus M. Schmidt Flores

by Kindel Media from Pexels, 29 March 2021

Despite existing labour laws, India’s sugar industry faces allegations of severe human rights violations involving forced labour and unethical medical practices. The rise of these allegations shines a light on the urgency for both local and multinational corporations to be involved in the global sugar supply chain to implement compliance principles aligning with international labour rights.

In one of India’s central sugar-producing states, Maharashtra, there have been numerous reports of incidents of child labour, forced labour, and unethical medical practices. Given the intertwined nature between business and politics within the sugar industry, workers’ rights have fallen victim to systemic abuses. This raises  questions about corporate accountability for these organisations perpetuating violations by sourcing sugarcane from the region.

Several reports surfaced in 2019 that revealed that women workers in Maharashtra’s sugar fields had been subjected to unethical medical practices through unnecessary hysterectomies (Business & Human Rights Resource Center, 2019). A practice often overlooked due to the influence sugar mill owners hold, as some are local politicians (Business & Human Rights Resource Center, 2019). These reports illustrate a clear example of the systemic violations of labour rights occurring due to the collision of corporate interests with worker protection standards.

The aforementioned combination of business and politics displayed in Maharashtra’s sugar industry portrays the difficulty the enforcement of labour laws faces, in addition to the industry’s international significance. Large international corporations that source sugar from this region often fail to ensure the protection of workers’ rights. Despite widespread evidence of these systemic violations, many businesses have opted to continue this means of operations whilst disregarding their supply chain transparency obligations (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2019).

In response to this, India has implemented legal frameworks, such as the Factories Act of 1948, which, despite aiming to safeguard workers exposed to exploitation, have lacked in establishing consistent enforcement parameters, particularly within the agriculture sector. Seeing how the nature of the sugar industry is highly reliant on informal labour, there is a common vulnerability to abuse as a result of a lack of access to protective means, such as proper legal representation. This failure is aggravated as the involvement of local politicians impedes the implementation of reforms protecting workers’ rights, giving way to an environment where labour violations can thrive (National Human Rights Commission, 2020).

A change involving the consistent participation of multinational companies in the sugar industry in cooperation with the Indian government would be the only way to address the labour rights abuses occurring within the sugar industry of Maharashtra. Manners that would incite key steps towards rectifying these systemic practices involve ensuring supply chain transparency, enforcement of labour laws compliant with international standards, as well as the implementation of accountability on companies that have made profits from the unethical sourcing practices in the Maharashtra sugar industry. Through a collective and coordinated effort, will the protection of workers be ensured. Achieving, thus, a transparent and compliant labour rights environment.

Sources and Further Readings

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. (2024). ‘Not just a number”: Tracking migrant worker abuse in global supply chains – a 2025 Global Analysis.

National Human Rights Commission. (2024). NHRC, India takes suo motu cognizance of anti-labour practices at multinational company warehouses. National Human Rights Commision.