The Bombay High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Maharashtra government, taking suo motu cognisance of an article in The Hindu on the financial and sexual exploitation of Maharashtra’s migrant workers in the State’s sugar belt.
Published on March 8 in the newspaper’s Mumbai edition, the article, “Sugar-belt shocker: the financial and sexual abuse of Maharashtra’s migrant workforce”, highlighted the plight of the migrant workers from the drought-affected areas of the Marathwada region. It gave details on how the labourers, who had migrated to Sangli, Kolhapur, Pune, Satara, Solapur and Ahmednagar for work, were routinely exploited.
A Division Bench of acting Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice Sandeep Marne on Wednesday issued notice to the State. Birendra Saraf, Advocate General of Maharashtra, sought time to go through the petition. The matter is slated to be heard on June 19. The Bench had taken suo motu cognisance of the article on March 8 and had directed advocate Pradnya Talekar to prepare a petition and senior advocate Mihir Desai to assist the court as amicus curiae.
The petition mentions an order by a Division Bench that says the migrant workers are entitled to all benefits of the statutes for the protection of workmen, including the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act, 2013. The Neelam Gorhe committee had been constituted after widespread media attention on the unprecedented levels of hysterectomy surgeries done in Beed district, as women workers sought to avoid penalties for less productivity during menstruation or pregnancy.
The petition raises issues regarding the status of the migrant workers as “workmen” and their entitlement to statutory minimum wages, provident fund, leave, insurance, maternity benefits, protection from sexual harassment and other service conditions. It sought a monitoring mechanism with members of the civil society, including social workers, economists, lawyers and retired judges, to look into the dangerous living and working conditions, lack of security and poor access to basic sanitary, medical and educational facilities for migrant workers.
