Scandalous Surgeries

-Author: Manushree Swami

"When I got my first period, my mother congratulated me". For some reason, I took pride in tolerating that agonising, relentless pain. I felt an od

d kinship with women who menstruated, too. Until a woman denigrated me as “ashudh” or impure. Forbade me from entering the kitchen, lest my touch contaminates the food. Lest my insolence provokes the Gods, I was not allowed into temples.

In metropolitan cities, the stigma around menstruation is, on the surface, not very blatant. To dig deeper into menstruaters’ experiences, one must travel to the countryside, where poverty, illiteracy, bonded labour, and the caste system abound. Beed, in Maharashtra, is one such village.

One of the key areas of the Indian sugar belt, Beed, produces an abundance of sugarcane, employing mass bonded labour. In 2019, FAO recorded that India grew the most sugarcane, surpassing Brazil. This success, however, was at the expense of 1,00,000 wombs. It was at the expense of thousands of girls who lost their teenage years to draconian, brutal surgeries.

Women in Beed have long been under the impression that menstruation is a curse. 70% of the unregistered workforce engaged in sugarcane cultivation are women ranging from 10-40 years of age. They live under unhygienic conditions with minimal awareness about menstruation and no medical guidance. Menstrual cramps, headaches, and dizziness due to PCOD (Polycystic Ovarian Disease) are often confused with symptoms of cancer. Labourers work for 10-18 hours a day at a daily wage of Rs 300 as opposed tothe legal minimum wage of Rs 600. Further, they are not paid if they do not come to work. The anxiety of “Apne pariwar ko kya khilaungi” (what would I feed my family) haunts these women. Slavery and child marriages are norms. Girls are married off at the age of 12-13 and are pregnant by 15. Moreover, they are compelled to work even during lactation, gestation periods, and menstruation. They are not given any healing period. Sojarbhai, a middle-aged woman in conversation with Vice India, stated that her “uterus fell while working due to lifting heavy weights (70-100 kgs).”

Sanitation is at an all-time low. Open defecation remains a ground reality. Many households have toilet blocks built under the government’s Swachh Bharat scheme, but their members still defecate in the open due to a lack of water. It is a vicious cycle as women have no sanitary facilities at their workplaces or homes. And the nature of work in sugar-cane fields has only worsened their situation. An investigation conducted by Al Jazeera in alliance with a French laboratory concluded that high barium content is found in Beed’s soil and water. Accidental consumption has had hazardous implications. In 2018 it was discovered that several women developed Fibroids in their uterus. This caused infections, immense pain, and a high amount of prostaglandins secretion.

Left with no option, women approach doctors. Hospitals, in pursuit of profits, exploit them. Problems like white discharge, pains, and weakness that are common for menstruating girls are apprised to them as cancer symptoms. Fibroids that can be treated with medication are not revealed. Moreover, unnecessary, harmful hysterectomies are advised. Teenagers who are young mothers and even women in their mid-20s or 30s enter premature menopause without any knowledge of consequent implications. Under the impression that they will be able to work efficiently post-surgery, women are plunged into debt traps and surgical complications. Abusive husbands blame and inflict violence on them. They also appropriate women’s incomes and exploit them in gambling games.

In 2018, this issue was brought up in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. The outcome was a 140-page report with zero implementation. Health cards were never issued to the women who underwent surgery, indicating most of them were forced. The need of the hour is for governments to approach women through their district-level women’s cells and apprehend hospitals and doctors involved in such illegal, heinous acts. Independent evaluations from government doctors should be arranged, as in the case of Bihar, where District Magistrate Kundan Kumar became so concerned about the figures recorded in Samastipur that he held a govt medical camp wherein women received an independent evaluation from doctors. Since the sugarcane cultivation lasts till March, health authorities should conduct surveys to examine hygiene conditions in the sugar belt where people from Beed, Shedala, etc., migrate in search of jobs. Inspections should be carried out, keeping in mind the diseases that spread due to open defecation and women using cloth instead of sanitary napkins. Such inspections and medical campaigns can also help ensure social distancing protocols amongst the migrant workers.

India cannot be called progressive while segments of its population put their well being at stake for industries to function. A country that worships women in its mythology treats them as second-class citizens in real life. Their bodies and their processes are constantly stigmatised. Menstruation, pregnancy, and ‘infertile’ wombs are subject to scrutiny. An end to this stigmatisation requires concrete measures that safeguard women’s right to life, liberty, and dignity—not tokenistic bills that never get enforced.