Women workers in sugar industries of Hyderabad-Karnataka Region: A sample survey

Women workers constitutes major workforce in unorganized sector. As the women workers in unorganized sector are mostly illiterates or low-educated, they are working with insecurity, getting lower and discriminatory wages, discriminated, exploited and even harassed at their work places, with longer working hours and facing many of the problems and challenges due to their poor working conditions. Sugar industry is one of such industries, which has employed more than 5 million women workers in India. As the work is seasonal in sugar industries, the women workers are working for only 150–200 working days and for more working hours, but getting lower wages. In this way, they are facing many of the problems and challenges in their work life. The present paper is based on the primary data collected from selected 150 women workers working in sugar industries of two districts, namely, Kalaburagi and Bidar in Hyderabad-Karnataka region. The paper described the outcome of the research survey.