THE PUFF JOB

Identifying smoking as a major cause of heart attacks in India, an article in the British Medical Journal 2005 said the harmful effects of beedis and cigarettes are almost similar. According to the study, 10 cigarettes a day increased the chance of a heart attack 9 times. In the case of 10 beedis a day, the increase was about 8.1 times.

In India, where beedi smoking and tobacco chewing are common habits, the major effects of tobacco are also seen in the oral cavity, pharynx and oesophagus, which together account for a large proportion of the tobacco-related cancers here. Studies show that beedi smokers have 4 to seven per cent more risk of developing cancers of the pharynx and oesophagus.

In the 2005 budget, the finance minister announced a special 10 per cent cess on cigarettes and other tobacco products, including gutkha, but beedis were exempted. Even the excise is lower for beedis. While it is Rs 100-2,000 per 1,000 sticks of different grades of cigarettes, the same quantity of beedis attracts less than Rs 10.

8220;The health impact is almost the same as that of cigarettes. Since this form of smoking is much cheaper, the number of beedis smoked is always higher than cigarettes,8221; pointed out Dr Anoop Misra, head of the department of diabetes and metabolism at Fortis Hospital.

The beedi industry began to grow in India in the late nineteenth century. The oldest beedi manufacturing firm was established around 1887 and by 1930, the beedi industry had spread across the country. The price differential from cigarettes favoured the use of beedis by the working classes and this domestic product soon supplanted cigarettes as the major form of tobacco consumption. The tax policies adopted by the Indian Government after Independence also favoured the beedi. This further fostered a growth in beedi consumption.

Until 1979, the primary form of taxing tobacco in India was through the levy of a tax on all types of leaf tobacco purchases, including those used for cigarettes, beedis, zarda and snuff. In addition, an excise duty was levied on finished products.

In that year, the government abolished the levy on leaf tobacco because many people thought it was a tax on the poor farmers producers as well as an instrument for harassing them in the name of tax compliance, and it was becoming administratively difficult to collect the tax. Consequently, the entire tax burden was shifted to the finished products.

8220;The government is exempting beedis on the ground that the sector is mostly run by women and children but the non-cigarette sectors will contribute to the largest burden of death and disability related to tobacco consumption,8221; said Dr K Srinath Reddy, eminent cardiologist and Director Public Health Foundation of India. 8220;In fact, beedis are at times more harmful as the tobacco is unfiltered and produces more noxious chemicals than cigarettes which are filtered and well rolled out.8221;

Experts say the sparing of beedis has more political than social reasons. Estimated to number 4.4 million, beedi workers form the third largest component of workforce after agricultural workers and textile workers. Various unions, most voluble being the left ones, are opposed to any tax increase, fearing the beedi workers might lose their jobs.

Even women8217;s groups like SEWA are opposed to the idea of increased taxation since the sector employs mostly women and children. More recently, letters from the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh to the Centre about reducing the size of the warning logo on beedi packets is another step in the same direction.

The Centre had notified that all tobacco products must have pictorial warnings on 50 per cent of packaging with a health warning. The notification came in July this year and was to be implemented by February 2007. However, the Andhra Pradesh government woke up late to the controversy.

The state wrote to the PMO and the Union Health Ministry, saying the warning would affect the 40 lakh workers in the industry. According to sources, the whole issue is an offshoot of the coming by-elections. Chandra Shekhar Rao is instrumental in raking up the controversy as his vote bank comprises beedi workers. Even the seven other MPs who made a representation to the Prime Minister and the Health Minister are said to have a stronghold in the beedi manufacturing areas.

About 10 days back, there was a meeting in the Health Ministry, where the tobacco industry was invited to discuss the issue. The beedi manufacturers refused to attend the meeting.

MADHYA PRADESH

No middle ground

With middlemen cornering the profits, a workers makes as little as Rs 35 for a thousand beedis

MILIND GHATWAI
BHOPAL

From deep within the forests where tribals engage in plucking tendu leaves to slums in cities where workers spend hours rolling hundreds of them in a day, the poor man8217;s cigarette impacts life in the state in a way no other industry does. The pluckers and the beedi makers get a pittance in proportion to what the middlemen and manufacturers make from the trade.

Most regulations, and there are many, remain on paper and yet the trade goes on. As many as 15 lakh families living around forests get employment in May and June when the leaves are collected. The annual turnover of the tendu leaf trade is not less than Rs 200 crore. At 27 lakh standard bags, MP accounts for nearly 80 per cent of production of tendu leaves in the country.

About 9.56 lakh workers are attached to the 372 units registered with the state8217;s labour department. And that8217;s not counting thousands of women and children who are not recorded.

8220;It8217;s a slow process, there are days when I get up at 5 am or work past midnight all the while worrying about possible rejections,8221; says Dhanubai Jatav, a resident of Kaichi Chhol area near Bhopal Railway Station. This when the 45-year-old is considered an expert, having rolled beedis for close to three decades. If there are no rejections, she gets Rs 38 for 1,000 beedis.

8220;It affects my health, I can8217;t make more than 500 beedis in two days as I have to look after my toddlers,8221; says Mamta Jatav. Draupadi Lodhi, who works for another agent, has been getting Rs 35 for 1,000 beedis for the past five years. In 1996, she was getting Rs 29. They know they are being exploited but can do little. There are hundreds waiting to roll the tendu leaves, but are not considered good enough.

Rukmani Bhargava, an activist, made an unsuccessful attempt to organise beedi workers. 8220;I simply gave up,8221; says Bhargava who runs Swashrayi Seva Mahila Sangh. The story is no different in Sagar, Damoh, Chhatarpur, Jabalpur and Katni, the hub of beedi manufacturers who draw strength from elected representatives. The trade is controlled by the Patels from neighbouring Gujarat who have settled in these parts. They source tobacco from Gujarat and have been calling the shots for close to a century.

Indore-based Deputy Commissioner labour Vasudev Sarkar says workers with identity cards are entitled to a host of benefits. But Left-leaning organisations who are active in the trade allege that benefits remain only on paper.

ANDHRA PRADESH

Smoke without fire

By-election brings attention but workers don8217;t see a future for the industry

KARN KOWSHIK
Karimnagar

In the Sircilla mandal, the largest occupation for women is beedi rolling. According to estimates, there are about 3 lakh people in the district that work in the beedi industry. With by-elections coming up in a little more than a week, the issue of beedis is becoming as talked about here as that of a separate Telangana state.

In Sircilla, some of the biggest beedi manufacturers include Desai Brothers, Telephone brand and Oonth brand. While some manufacturers are local, all the big brands are multi-state operations. Desai Brothers and Telephone brand, for example, are from Gujarat, while Oonth Brand is from Maharashtra.

Sandeep Sonawane, of Oonth Brand, says: 8220;None of the actual production work is done in our factory. We just cure and pack the beedis.8221; Every morning, a local contractor comes to the factory, and is issued tobacco and tendu leaves. His factory here employs about 1,800 workers, all of them women, except for a few men in the packing department.

8220;It8217;s the only work we know,8221; says Kanta B. Her husband, like other men in the village, works in a powerloom. 8220;Everyday, I can roll about 800 beedis.8221; On a good day, she can roll more than a 1,000, making her daily income anywhere between Rs 50 and Rs 80. She has not heard about the controversy regarding the pictorial warning. But her contractor Balaiyyah has. 8220;Once that warning is on the packets, sales will go down drastically.8221;

Beedi manufacturers say that they have taken representations to the government at the national level. But in Karimnagar, it8217;s the local level that matters. Papayyah, who packs beedis in a factory, says: 8220;The issue is just passed around from candidate to candidate here, nobody wants to actually do anything about it.8221;

8220;The Congress and the TDP both blame K Chandrashekhara Rao TRS chief and candidate for the election for this problem, as he was the Union Labour Minister when the law was notified,8221; says Balaiyyah. 8220;KCR says that it8217;s for the Congress to rectify as they are at the Centre now.8221;

But like many, he8217;s also resigned to fate. 8220;Whatever the politicians say, it8217;s too late now.8221;

MAHARASHTRA

Victims of outsourcing

Private rates cheaper, so factories force their workers to contractors

Bhaktiyar Tangsal
Solapur

They call themselves victims of the factory owners8217; politics of profit. In acute poverty, thousands of beedi workers in the district are thronging private moneylenders for loans they can never hope to repay.

8220;Five years back, there was no ban on the limit for rolling beedis. A family of beedi workers could roll five to six thousand beedis a day, earning about Rs 250. But since the factory owners have imposed restrictions, we can only roll a maximum of 800 beedis and our daily income has been reduced to just Rs 42,8221; says Ravindra Mokashi, former general secretary of the beedi workers8217; union.

The beedi factory owners claim they have been forced to reduce production as they have seen considerable fall in the demand, thanks to the competition they face with the cigarette. But Mokashi insists there is no fall in the sale; the owners are cutting cost: 8220;They have reduced the quantity of production from their own workers but are hiring private beedi workers at a paltry rate of Rs 30 for 1,000 beedis.8221;

At the Rahul Gandhi Nagar slum, Fatima Beg has three daughters-in-law and two daughters who can roll upto 6,000 beedis a day. But Beg has only one factory card and can8217;t roll more than 800 beedis. 8220;Tell me, how can I run my family of eight members?8221; she says. Eventually, she has taken the help of a private contractor and rolls 5,000 beedis daily for him for much less.

There are thousands like Beg in the district where more than 60,000 workers depend on the beedi industry. In Solapur, even marriages in the community depend on the rolling skill of the daughters. 8220;It becomes easier if a girl has a beedi factory card in her name,8221; says Sunanda Balla, a beedi worker union leader.

Amid such poverty, child labourers are common. 8220;Even at three, a girl starts learning how to roll beedis. Among the 60,000 rollers here, 3,000-5,000 could be children,8221; accepts Narsamma Yelgeti, another union leader.

Asthma and tuberculosis are the common ailments among these workers. The union has no answer why there is not a single devoted hospital for this 60,000-strong workforce. As these workers need to sit long hours, most of them suffer from backache, itchy eyes and tobacco dust allergy.

8220;CPIM leader Sitaram Yechuri is in touch with the Centre8217;s Beedi Welfare Fund office. Hopefully by next year, we will have a hospital,8221; says Mokashi.

Let it roll

MAHESH MHATRE
MUMBAI

Maharashtra is home to about 2.5 to 3 lakh beedi workers. Their concentration is highest in Vidarbha8217;s remote Gondiya and Bhandara districts. Tendu leaves used for rolling beedi grow in these two districts as well as in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. Most of the beedi production units are here as well.

Besides these Naxalite-affected districts, Solapur, Nagpur Kamtee and Pune have a sizeable population of beedi workers. In Kamtee town, former Minister Sulekha Kumbhare8217;s father, the late Dadasaheb Kumbhare, worked actively for the welfare of beedi workers. Needless to say, beedi workers became the force behind Sulekha Kumbhare8217;s political success.

In Solapur, the CITU and other communist organisations are still working with beedi workers. Local MLA Narasayya Adam Master has a strong following among the workers. During the time of the last Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government, it was Master who brought together beedi manufacturers and workers to oppose the central government8217;s law.

But in Solapur, as in other parts of the state, patronage has not translated necessarily into protection. At present, about 60 to 70,000 workers work in this sector in Solapur under vulnerable conditions. But political interest in this business still runs strong.

Take the case of Central Aviation Minister Praful Patel8217;s father, Manoharbhai. A former MLA and state Congress treasurer, Manoharbhai, began as a beedi rolling worker. Soon he graduated to the beedi collection and distribution business.

Discovering that there was a huge margin in selling packed beedi in the market, he floated his own brands8212;7 number beedi, 9 number, Bandari beedi among others. Entering politics then made even better business sense. Manoharbhai joined the Congress and was elected with the support of his constituency8217;s beedi workers. After his father8217;s death, it was Praful Patel8217;s turn to enter politics.

At present, the Patels run their business under two major companies, Chotabhai Jethbhai CJ Patel Company and Manoharbhai Patel Company.

8216;It8217;s just politics8217;

He has political compulsion as one of the largest manufacturers of beedis in the country happens to be a Cabinet colleague but Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is determined to take the anti-tobacco campaign to its logical end. On the pictorial warning controversy, he said: 8220;It is a politically motivated move. If the notification was given in July, why were the objections not raised then? Besides, the step has been taken under the Act of Parliament passed by the previous government, I am just enforcing the act. Why is the issue of unemployment being raised when the session is on and elections are coming? Besides, you talk about the unemployment of 4 lakh people but what about the health of 40 crore people, majority of them poor, who smoke in the country? About 40 per cent of diseases in the country are tobacco related. When you compare the risks and the benefits, we need these kind of steps.

8216;We must protect the health of the poor8217;

Dr K Srinath Reddy, eminent cardiologist, former head of Cardiology at AIIMS and now head of the Public Health Foundation of India, represented the Government of India at the WHO8217;s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control FCTC in Geneva. A prominent public health expert, Dr Reddy won the Queen Elizabeth medal for anti-tobacco initiatives in the country. Excerpts from an interview with Toufiq Rashid:

What are the recommendations of the FCTC?

There are two major recommendations 8212; the price measures which include raising price and taxes on tobacco products to discourage consumption; and non-price measures which talk about pictorial warning on the packaging of the tobacco products and ban on all forms of direct and indirect advertising. Besides, we must encourage tobacco farmers to go for alternative economically viable options.

What kind of pictorial warnings are we talking about?

50 per cent of packaging has to have either a picture showing consequences of smoking like oral cancer or pictures of children affected so that the consumers are deterred. The final decision in this regard is expected soon.

What does the agreement mean to India?

India is a signatory to the agreement and has also ratified it. So unlike the US, which has only signed but not ratified the treaty, India is bound by the recommendations of the agreement. Countries like the US are not bound by the agreement but can8217;t do anything contrary to the recommendations. India was the eighth country to ratify the agreement following a Cabinet decision in 2004.

Does the agreement cover all tobacco products?

It covers all smoking and non-smoking forms of tobacco. This includes beedis and gutkha as well. Our own Act for tobacco control also prescribes the same.

Should beedis be exempted?

The Act of Parliament includes all tobacco products and beedis. The Act was unanimously passed. Beedis remain the most favoured form of tobacco consumption and account for 45-47 per cent of the total consumption.

But governments seem to have problems taxing beedis8230;

Beedis have been given a differential preference when it comes to taxes because it is popularly perceived as a poor man8217;s puff. Besides, a large section of labourers are dependent on the industry.

However, all government policies focus on protecting the health of the poor. They cannot afford the high cost of treatment if they get throat cancer. And we cannot raise the beedi workers above the poverty level by keeping them in this part-time seasonal job. It is also contrary to the goal of education for all. The children working in this industry are not provided any alternative.

So what is the solution?

We must tax beedis and other tobacco products and use the additional revenue for the welfare of the poor workforce. The fairest solution is to move these workers to alternative employment.

Otherwise, if we leave beedis out, it will be very difficult for us to deter tobacco consumption in the country. Besides, price elasticity might not discourage the cigarette smokers who are willing to pay more but the poor and young are definitely deterred by even a marginal increase.