Lyrics

Migrant Child (capo 5th fret in Dm)

Am G
The sugarcane mills own the land
Am G
in Maharashtra where Mumbai stands.
F C
A million migrants go to the fields
E E7 Am-G-Am
for a six-month harvest the warm Earth yields.

Archana cut cane since she was ten.
It’s contract work so the mills pretend
that the code of conduct spreads far and wide.
But it’s bonded labor for both worker and child.

Chorus
C G F Am
Cut and bundle and haul away. Sugar cane harvest makes a long, long day.
C G
The taste is sweet and the profit is high.
F E7 Am-G-Am
But no one sees the migrant child. The migrant child.

An advance to her parents gets them five bucks a day,
but at the end of the season there is still debt to pay.
They must return each year for what they owe.
The contractor with the truck is the only one they know.
Chorus

Archana is married off at fourteen
to a young cane worker to make a team.
He cuts and she carries the cane on her head.
She wonders if she’ll work these fields till she’s dead.
Chorus

This sugar goes into Pepsi and Coke
at a price that makes what we pay a joke.
No shade or water in this sugarcane sea.
If she misses a day, she pays a fee.
Chorus

Words and Music by David B. Hakan
© 2024 All Rights Reserved 3-26-2024