Karnataka - Mangalore   

Beedi industry, labour organisations awaiting ISEC report

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE, MAY 8. It has been 18 months since the State Government asked the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore, to conduct a study on the beedi industry in the State following reports of mass labour layoffs. The Government funded the study estimated to cost Rs. 11.50 lakh.

The beedi industry and labour organisations are keenly awaiting the report, which, perhaps, will be placed before the new governments at the State and the Centre.

According to an estimation prepared by the State Government, there are eight lakh beedi workers in the State, of which 2.8 lakh are registered workers.

Though raw materials such as tendu leaves and tobacco are not produced in the State, the beedi industry has survived for long here with raw material coming from other States, particularly Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

But now, beedi workers are facing problems owing to the informal nature of the industry, apart from poor remuneration they get for their work. They are also plagued by shortage of work.

The study by ISEC is expected to go into details of the problems faced by beedi workers, which have been placed under three categories.

While the first category deals with problems faced by beedi workers, the second category addresses the problems of the industry. In the third category, general problems connected with the industry are to be studied.

In the first category, the employment status and living conditions of the beedi workers, the working condition, wages, labour welfare facilities available to beedi workers, their legal and social status, medical and housing facilities provided for them in the State and outside, aspects of child labour and bonded labour in the beedi industry, issuing registration certificates to employers and licences to contractors by the jurisdictional assistant labour commissioners, issuance of identity cards to beedi workers, welfare programmes implemented by the Centre and the State Government for beedi workers, and the impact of new laws on tobacco and tobacco products on the future of the beedi industry are to be studied.

In the second category, the study will focus on the availability of raw material for making beedis, the cost of raw material in the State and outside, taxes levied by the Centre and the State Government, and the wages paid to labourers in different States.

The study will also compare the wages given to registered workers with that offered to unregistered beedi workers. The industry has particularly been through a rough phase in the past five years owing to the effects of globalisation.

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