Roundtable in Pune pushes coordinated welfare access for migrant sugarcane workers

The roundtable was convened with support from Bonsucro, a global body focused on sustainable sugarcane, and WISMA, the West Indian Sugar Mills Association. Together, they are piloting a programme called GROW (Gender Rights Opportunity and Work Empowerment) across Solapur, Pune, Kolhapur, and Vijayapura districts.

The focus on women workers was deliberate. Migrant women who cut sugarcane don’t just do backbreaking field work, but also manage childcare, cooking, and household duties, often in temporary settlements far from home. When families migrate, access to health services, nutrition programmes, and schooling for children break down entirely.

Officials at the roundtable highlighted this issue. “When families move for work, their healthcare, nutrition, and children’s learning should not be left behind,” said Dr Sandip Sangle, additional director of public health. B B Wagh, additional labour commissioner of Pune division, pointed to the need for stronger enforcement. “Decent work for sugarcane cutters cannot stop at the farm gate,” he said.

The bigger challenge has always been coordination. Government schemes exist. Welfare boards exist. But awareness among workers remains low, and access to services is often unclear.

The roundtable agreed on a few practical steps, such as nominating nodal officers in relevant departments, creating referral pathways between mills, government services, and community organisations, and building a roadmap to scale the model across four to five districts in the next six months.

Sanjay Khatal, Managing Director of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation, stressed that migrant workers contributing significantly to the state’s economy deserve insurance coverage. V S Kendre, General Manager of the Gopinath Munde Sugarcane Labour Welfare Corporation, flagged two priorities: issuing identity cards to workers and creating a centralised dashboard to track labour contractors, known as mukaddams.

Sandip Jatthar, Deputy Director of the Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission, stressed linking social protection with skilling, so that women workers might eventually access safer, better-paying work over time.

Manisha Majumdar from Bonsucro described their role as that of a neutral platform, one that can bring mills, buyers, government, and civil society together without any single party dominating. “Our role is to design practical solutions, share learning, and scale what works,” she said.