Pension funds and big investors are pressuring Coca-Cola, Pepsico and others over brutal working conditions in India’s cane fields. Some of the sugar buyers are tiptoeing toward change.
Tag: Forced Labor
How Forced Labor and Hysterectomies Are Darkly Linked in India
Our correspondent explains how an exploitative labor system has produced a system of brutality in the country’s sugar fields.
Abused Workers in India’s Sugar Industry Face Worse Fates if They Quit
Why would anyone stay in a job where abuse is rampant and women are coerced into hysterectomies? Because the cost of escaping India’s cane fields is often even higher.
How The Times Investigated Indian Political Ties to Labor Abuse in the Sugar Industry
Western companies such as Coca-Cola buy sugar from fields where workers suffer abuses. But the country has labor laws. Where was the government?
Why Lawmakers Ignore Human Rights Abuses in India’s Sugar Fields
Politicians run most of the mills in the state of Maharashtra. They deny or downplay evidence of coerced hysterectomies, debt bondage and child labor in the fields.
Bonsucro Certified Indian Sugar From Abusive Fields
Much of what consumers buy is marked “sustainable,” “humane” or “green.” In the sugar cane fields of India, that papered over the worst abuses.
Holocaust Death Toll on English Channel Island Is Raised by Hundreds
A panel of academics said it found more conclusive evidence of how many people were killed during the Nazi occupation of Alderney, one of the Channel Islands in British territory.
For Old Ukrainians, Russia’s Invasion Echoes World War II Trauma
The oldest Ukrainians whose towns have been bombarded and overrun by Russia’s invasion have memories of similar miseries at the hands of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Sugar in India, Fueled by Child Marriage and Hysterectomies
An investigation into the sugar-cane industry in the Indian state of Maharashtra found workers ensnared by debt and pushed into child marriages and unnecessary hysterectomies.
5 Takeaways From an Investigation Into Hysterectomies in India’s Sugar Industry
Indebted workers, facing brutal working conditions, are pushed to get hysterectomies as a treatment for routine ailments. Sugar mills disclaim responsibility.