Video credit: Jan Vosýnek, Artyčok TV

In India, over 4500 women in the Beed District of Maharashtra underwent hysterectomy in 2016-2019 to work “smoothly” as sugarcane harvesters. A hysterectomy is a medical procedure whereby a woman's uterus is removed through surgery. Indian women sugarcane harvesters work 16 hours a day for six continuous months during the harvesting season between October and March. But their work is not only limited to the fields; they also do invisible labor as women – as mothers, wives, and daughters. Through my project I highlight how women's bodies and labor are commodified under a capitalistic and patriarchal system and how through art we can reclaim these erased narratives. The central video work employs intimate camera language, sound and poetic montage, centring the women's lived experiences.