When my colleagues and I began investigating labor abuses among sugar cane cutters in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, we were startled by how open it all was.

Debt bondage, child labor and coerced hysterectomies happened in plain sight. We traveled from village to village in the arid, impoverished region of Beed. Every worker we talked to had either witnessed or suffered from abuses.

But for decades, little had been done. Big Western brands such as Coca-Cola knew that workers were being exploited, yet continued to buy sugar from the region. A sugar industry group even gave a mill its seal of approval despite easily identified links to abuses.

Workers told us that they felt abandoned by their government, left to fend for themselves as they struggled to feed their families. Women showed us their hysterectomy scars and told us that they had gotten the surgery because they could not miss work for routine gynecological care.

Debt bondage is illegal. Child labor is, too. India has a minimum wage and labor laws.

So, where was the government?