A recent study by the New York Times and Fuller Project reveals the not-so-sweet side of sugarcane production in India. In the state of Maharashtra, the community has been transformed, with help from Pepsi and Coca-Cola, into a sugar producing powerhouse. But this transformation comes at a cost for local women and girls in the form of child marriages, hysterectomies and illegal generational debt bondage, with the U.N. labeling it forced labor.

Girls marrying within months of their first period

The international community regards child marriage as a human rights violation and in India, child marriage is illegal. But rooting it out has proved extremely difficult as child marriage has deeply ingrained cultural and economic causes. It is especially entrenched in the sugarcane industry as cutting sugarcane is a two-person job known as koyta, and families in Maharashtra are so desperately poor, child marriage can tick two boxes for them, both related to poverty.

Archana Ashok Chaure who was married at 14 and has given her life to sugarcane stated:

“If we are married, (our parent’s) stress reduces and the responsibility is shifted to our husband’s shoulders, so they marry us off.”

On top of that, most workers are living in debt bondage having been advanced money at the start of the season. Husband-and-wife teams cutting cane can make twice as much as someone working alone. Instead of receiving wages, they simply work to pay off the year’s advance from their employer, sometimes even having residual debt from the previous year. A system that can lead to generational debt bondage as it is passed from parents to children. Any additional costs incurred by the workers over the season, like medical needs or fees workers must pay if they miss a day of work, are added to the debt pool and carried over year after year making climbing out of debt bondage almost impossible. That means child marriage is less of a decision and more of a survival tactic for families.

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