Transient Spaces, Temporary Alliances: Harvesting breathing spaces in India’s sugarcane fields
Subramanian, Reetika Revathy
Subramanian, Reetika Revathy
Citations
Altmetric:
Titre
Publication date
2024-09-19
Document type
Journal article
Pages
22
Author(s)
Advisors
Editor(s)
Other Contributors
Affiliation
ePub Date
Submitted date
Subject
Local subject classification
MeSH
Country
Collections
Description
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Marathwada is a historically drought-affected and caste-ridden region in Maharashtra, and a reflection of India’s story of exclusionary economic growth. Poor rainfall, extractive agrarian practices, and social exclusion have forced nearly one million marginal farm families and landless communities to harvest sugarcane in neighbouring districts. They are recruited in pairs, as a <i>koyta</i>, almost universally comprising husband and wife, and live and work on different sugarcane fields for six months a year. This article first describes the asymmetrical power relations and day-to-day practices of gendered public space that shape the lives of female cane harvesters as women, wives, and migrant labourers. It then illustrates the temporary friendships and inter-generational alliances that have emerged in these shared life/work spaces, referred to as ‘breathing spaces’: on their co-ordinated walks to complete morning ablutions in the open fields, in their shared kitchens outside their makeshift homes, and on the tractor-trailers that ferry them from one sugarcane field to another. Here, they express themselves and engage in both casual banter and serious discussion about their alcoholic husbands and abusive labour contractors, sexual and reproductive health problems, and even anxieties and dreams. It is in and through such smaller, transitory spaces within the larger spaces – in the absence of men – that the article presents the myriad ways in which the female <i>koyta</i> workers (re)produce social relations and reclaim their own little pockets of freedom to ensure safety, relief, and recovery. The article is based on a multi-sited ethnographic study, including inter-generational conversations, focus group discussions, stakeholder interviews, and thick field notes documented between October 2020 and August 2021.</p>
</body>
</html>
Language
English
Other Titles
Abstract
Citation
Journal
Gender & Development
Journal Theme
Gender and Public Space
Volume
32
Issue
2
Research Unit
Table of contents
Series
ISSN
EISSN
1364-9221
ISBN
1355-2074