Forced Hysterectomies And Caste Discrimination

Women in Beed, an impoverished, drought-hit district in the western Indian state of Maharashtra are resorting to getting their uterus removed. Married off at an early age, these women have become a part of the unorganised labour economy, earning as little as 3 dollars after working for 18 hours in sugarcane fields every day, seven days in a week. The fields lack access to basic amenities and this often leads to infections that go untreated for years. When these women seek medical assistance, they are told that a hysterectomy is their only way out. In order to pay for these surgeries they take loans and then end up spending years paying off their debt. In this episode of Politics of Sex, VICE meets some of these women along with social activist Manisha Tokle to figure out how this cycle is trapping them and how medical malpractice is a factor in it as well.