Stripped off their work choices

To augment the meager income of her family, Geeta rolls beedis. To meet the growing needs and demands of her two children, a seven year old boy and a five year old girl, she has sacrificed her health. Her body aches from the constant sitting her work involves, but the inaccessibility of any medical facility in her village gives her a reason to ignore the pain.

There are many others like Geeta at Velumbet village, employed in beedi making. Health problems like tuberculosis and asthma at an early age of 30 to 35 are very common among them owing to involuntary inhalation of tobacco dust.

“There is no health centre in our village. I don’t go to a doctor,” says Geeta. Paid 60 rupees for rolling 1,000 beedis, she earns approximately 2,000 rupees per month. A factory worker supplies her raw materials once a week and collects the finished products.

Geeta has been rolling beedis for three years now. One of the reasons she sticks to this job is because it allows her to stay at home and work. “I don’t have to go anywhere. This way I can take care of the house too,” she says.
A report was published in May last year about beedi consumption and manufacture patterns. Titled ‘Bidi Smoking and Public Health’, it reveals that India is the world’s largest market of beedi consumers and producers with more than 100 million beedi smokers. The study was carried out over a five-year period and developed by the Healis, Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health based in Mumbai and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study also claims that beedis contain higher levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide than regular cigarettes. Also the beedi makers who did not smoke or chew tobacco had tobacco present in their blood, saliva and urine.
Bhaskar, a beedi maker and Geeta’s neighbour, works for a Chennai based Raja Company. His wife Chithira helps him with the finishing work. They have a nine year old daughter and a seven year old son. With Bhaskar the only earning member of the family, they barely manage with rupees 1,000 per month.
Unlike Geeta, Bhaskar goes to the company’s office, which is 1 kilometer away, to get the raw material and deposit the finished product. The income he gets from rolling beedis is not enough to sustain a family of four, says Bhaskar.
“We have no savings at all. I insist for weekly payment but they refuse every time,” says Bhaskar.
The government has legislation to monitor the beedi industry, protect beedi workers’ rights and guarantee minimum wages along with health care and education. But the beedi making sector is unorganized which makes the implementation difficult. Most employees in this industry work under piece-rate wages and are deprived of the statutory minimum wage rate. Lack of job security adds to their problems.
The beedi industry reported annual revenue of Rs.900 crore in 2006. More than eight million people are employed in the beedi manufacturing industry.
Bhaskar and Geeta, both educated, are aware of their rights but can’t raise their voices against the exploitation they are going through.
“What if they don’t give me the supply for next month? What will I do? This is my only source of income,” says Bhaskar.