Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul
INDIGENIST MISSIONARY COUNCIL - CIMI
tume
PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF INDIGENOUS
LABOR IN THE CUTTING OF SUGAR CANE²²
A worker cutting 12 metric tons of cane, on average, per
working day performs the following activities:
Walks 8800 meters.
Makes 133,332 machete cuts.
Carries 12 metric tons of cane into of 15 kg piles on average;
makes 800 trips and 800 lifts, carrying 15 kg in the arms a distance
of 1.5 to 3 meters.
Makes approximately 36,630 lifts and thoracic torsion
movements to cut the cane.
Loses an average of 8 liters of water per day, in this activity
under the hot sun of São Paulo, under the effects of dust and soot
released by the burned cane, wearing clothing that protects from
the cane, but increases body temperature.2
Social consequences of indigenous labor in the sugarcane
harvest
Impossibility to reconcile activity with those inherent in the
indigenous economy;
Absence from everyday life of the community;
Economic enculturation with significant alterations to
traditional institutions;
"Disintegration" of family relationships.
International Classification Grouping of Diseases, according
to Nexo Técnico Epidemiológico Previdenciário caused in the
cutting of sugar cane: mental and behavioral disorders due to
substance use, Schizophrenia, Visual disturbances and blindness;
Hypertensive diseases; other diseases of the heart, chronic airway
diseases, Hernias, Arthropathies; Dorsal pathologies; Injuries of
the skull, chest, spine, pelvis, wrist, and other illnesses.
Since 2004 more than 3.200 persons were liberated from
enslavement in Mato Grosso do Sul. The state is among the first in
the 'dirty list' of those who employ this form of inhumanity.
Currently circa 5 thousand indigenous persons are working in
the cutting of the cane harvest in this state.
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22 Check in: BRAN D, Antonio J. e REZENDE, Simone Beatriz A. Consequências Físicas e sociais do Trabalho do indígena no Corte da Cana de Açúcar. IV Seminário Povos Indígenas e Sustentabilidade -
NE PPI www.neppi.org. AL VES, Francisco. Por que morrem os cortadores de cana? Saúde e Sociedade, v. 15, n. 3, p. 90-98, set.-dez., 2006. Available in: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/sausoc/v15n3/08.pdf.
Accessed on: 29 jul. 2011.View entire presentation