Kerala   

Beedi workers wait for benefits

KASARAGOD: After cashew and coir industry, beedi manufacturing provides the highest number of jobs to the poor in the State. But the living conditions of beedi workers in the unorganised sector, concentrated mainly in Kasaragod district, are appalling. The concept of minimum wages is rarely implemented here. Schemes like Employees State Insurance and Workers Welfare Fund which provide benefits to coir and cashew workers have given most of them a go-by.

Of the 1 lakh-odd workers in the sector, only around 30,000 have workers identity cards which entitle them to benefits from Employees Provident Fund scheme. Decentralisation of industry has seen the emergence of contractors who act as middlemen between employer and workers. A large number of contractors operate illegally, without registration.

The beedi workers who handle powdered tobacco are prone to health hazards including tuberculosis. But they are not given any risk coverage. The beedis manufactured in Kasaragod are transported to Karnataka and sold under brand names of major manufactures based in Karnataka. The principal employers based in Karnataka are least bothered about those who work for them in Kerala. While the minimum wages for producing 1,000 beedis in Kerala is around Rs.84, in Karnataka it is around Rs.64, notes AITUC district secretary T. Krishnan. Though the contractors here claim that they give minimum wages of Karnataka to workers, usually they are given around Rs.50 for 1,000 beedies, he observed.

While workers in beedi industry in Karnataka get benefits from central welfare fund for beedi and cigar workers, beedi workers in Kasaragod who work under illegally operating contractors get nothing. Trade union leaders point out that even registered contractors in the State are opposed to implementing ESI scheme to workers.

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