It’s 4am in Ramanal, a remote, rural area of Karnataka in southern India. Poornima steps out of her tent to begin another day. She, like all the women living in these makeshift shelters, washes before the men wake. They have travelled more than 500km from their villages to find work and pay off their debts.
Across India, an estimated 1.5 million people cut sugarcane, often working 14-hour days for as little as ₹400 (£3) per day. They work in pairs – usually husband and wife – from early morning until night, stopping only to load harvested cane onto trucks.
