'30k women in Maha removed uterus to earn during menstruation'

Mumbai: Maharashtra Minister Nitin Raut has written to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray seeking his intervention to address the issue of women sugarcane workers removing uterus in their bid to ensure they dont lose wages.

According to Raut, the Marathwada region in central Maharashtra has the highest number of sugarcane workers, a substantial number of them women.

A large of women labourers do not work during their menstrual cycle and dont get wages for the days they are absent and hence, they opt for removal of uterus, he noted in the letter written on Tuesday.

The minister, a Congress leader, pegged the number of women who took such step at 30,000.

Raut said women will not take such a step if sugarcane factories provide them wages for the four days of menstrual cycle during the six-month-long sugarcane harvesting period.

Requesting you to issue orders to the department concerned to solve the problems faced by women sugarcane workers in Marathwada on humanitarian ground, Raut said in the letter.

The minister handles a slew of portfolios, including PWD, tribal welfare, women and child welfare, textile, relief and rehabilitation.

Thackeray is heading a Shiv Sena-led government in which the Congress and the NCP are key partners.