Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh requests Pune MP to take up beedi workers’ cause

A BMS meeting with beedi workers.

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has written to Pune MP Anil Shirole requesting him to take cognizance of the problems faced by beedi workers. With the country having nearly 1 crore beedi workers and 5-6 crore families dependent on the beedi industry, the BMS said that it is unfortunate that the industry is facing repeated closures after a GR issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare under the cigarettes and other tobacco products amendment rules dated October 15, 2014, mandated the health warning display area to be increased from the existing 40 per cent on one side to 85 per cent (60 per cent pictorial and 25 per cent textual) on both sides of the packet.

In a letter signed by Sachin Mengle, Arjun Chavan and Umesh Vishwad of BMS, they have requested the MP to look into the issue and address it to the government. For the first time, an all-India bandh was called for a month which had affected the families of beedi workers immensely. There have been several bandh calls by the industry, which BMS said need to be stopped immediately. In Solapur itself, which has a large number of beedi workers, the deaths of at least two women were reported, who could not face the subsequent difficulties.

The All India Beedi Workers’ Federation has strongly opposed the ‘production bandh’ by beedi manufacturers and employers which resulted into loss of wages to the 1 crore beedi workers. The federation demanded that the government take necessary action against the bandh and arrange compensation to the workers affected by it. The BMS has demanded that the issue be addressed at the earliest. The beedi industry employs the third largest number of workers, next only to agricultural workers and construction workers.