While stitching a blouse that now earns her ₹200, Valli recalls a time not long ago when her days looked very different. Back then, she spent nearly 12 hours in sugarcane fields, bundling stalks under the sun and rain, without wages and little control over her life.
It was in 2018 that the turn began. Valli and her husband, both daily wage labourers then, wanted to build a small house for their family. To arrange the money, they approached a person they knew in their village. In return, the couple agreed to work in sugarcane fields linked to him, assuming they would earn wages while gradually repaying the amount.
Instead, the work tightened into bondage.
On the fields
For the next two years, the family moved between sugarcane fields across parts of Karnataka, particularly around Davanagere, and some districts in neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
