Ethics/Society · 20 Aug 2026

sugarcane cutters mukadam system Maharashtra

Consider the following statements:

  1. Nearly 10 lakh migrant sugarcane cutters work in Maharashtra, about half of them women, mostly from Beed and other districts.
  2. As of December 2025, over two-thirds of India's operational mechanical sugarcane harvesters were located in Maharashtra.
  3. The mukadam contractor system has historically helped mill owners fulfil their statutory obligations toward cutters under the Factories Act, 1948 and the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979.
AOnly one
BOnly two
CAll three
DNone
This question is based on: When the Machines Arrive: Maharashtra's Sugarcane Cutters Face a Future Without Them
Take this in full test mode → Instructions for 20 Aug 2026
About this question

Why in news

A ground report from Beed district documented the accelerating mechanisation of Maharashtra's sugarcane harvest, driven by labour shortages and rising costs, arriving just as a 2025 Bombay High Court welfare directive and sustained activism had begun compelling accountability for decades of exploitation of migrant cutters under the mukadam system.

Why for UPSC

This tests whether aspirants can distinguish a genuine statistical fact from a statement that inverts the actual function of an institutional arrangement - the mukadam system's role in evading, not fulfilling, labour law obligations is the key discriminator.

Prelims summary

~10 lakh migrant sugarcane cutters work in Maharashtra (half women, mainly from Beed); 68% of India's 3,218 mechanical harvesters (Dec 2025) are in Maharashtra; the mukadam contractor system historically let mills evade Factories Act, 1948 and Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 obligations.

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