Migrant Sugarcane Workers of India

India is a beautiful and diverse country with a massive population of more than 1.3 billion people. Over 50 million of these individuals depend on income generated by sugar-related industries and an estimated 35 million farmers cultivate sugarcane on their land.

Every year, towards the end of the monsoon season, up to half a million struggling subsistence farmers and their families will leave their poorly irrigated land behind and travel to states like Maharashtra and Karnataka where sugarcane grows in abundance, thanks to a large network of dams.

Often journeying for days by ox cart, they have been coming to these regions for over 40 years. From November to March, they will carry out backbreaking, ill-paid work during the annual sugarcane harvest. At the end of it all, there is a real possibility that due to corruption they may not get paid what they are owed. Yet they travel from afar because they need to provide for their families, and desperately hope for a better life.