Shortage of labour hits beedi industry

Beedi smoking has always been considered less harmful than smoking cigarettes. However, today, the beedi industry is in the red owing to lack of labourers to roll beedis. Over 40% of the industry is suffering because of dearth of enough hands.

“Beedi rolling is considered a skilful avocation in traditional industries, and it used to be one of the largest employers after agriculture and fisheries in the state. But, today, beedi rollers are migrating from beedi-rolling to other fields, especially agriculture and food processing,” said K Ibrahim, general secretary of Karnataka State Beedi Contractor’s Federation.

Karnataka had nearly 90 brands of beedies led by four companies from Mangalore till 2007; however, now, during the last four years, the number of companies has come down to just 42 and they are also able to produce only 40% of their installed capacity.

The total output of Karnataka beedi industries in 1997 was over 10 crore beedi sticks every month, but now it has come down to 6 crore sticks.

“The reason for this was the greed of the company owners; they procure substandard raw materials like tendu leaves (beedi leaves), tobacco flakes, and thread (to tie the stick), which are supplied through contractors to the beedi rollers. The owners want maximum output from the rollers despite the substandard raw material and when the output was not as expected, they penalise the contractor and the contractor passes it on to the beedi rollers,” said Mohammad Rafi, a leader of the beedi rollers’ group.

 “The raw material comes from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, which is the belt for tendu trees. In fact, there are two types of raw materials. The good quality material goes into the production of premium beedis, and these are produced in special units in a more organised manner where labourers are given good working conditions. Due to the good material, the wastage was non-existent or minimum which was absorbed by the company. But for local brands, the companies expect beedi rollers to roll not less than 2,000 sticks from 1 kg of leaves, which was just not possible,” said Rafi.

At the end of the day, the poor beedi rollers, who earn as little as `90 to `103 per 1,000 beedies, will have to shell out as much as 20% to 25% of his income towards ‘loss of production’ penalty.

“The loss of production is not our problem. Substandard materials such as tendu leaves, tobacco flakes, and the thread are just not enough to reach the production target. The leaves are brittle and they break. The flakes are sometimes moist and weighs more; the thread is so fragile that we cannot tie the beedis tight,” said S Ameen Kolar, a leader of the beedi rollers in Kolar and Bangalore rural districts.