“Solapur is not Switzerland,” my wife said when I declared my intention to camp for three days there, “It will be very hot there.” But I was firm on my resolve. “I wish to study the problems of Beedi workers” I said.

I had read that the textile industry in Solapur was dying, that Solapur ‘chadar’ was a thing of the past, and that Beedi workers were everywhere in the city! So, I decided to see everything for myself. I asked Arvind Shrouti to join me, and he immediately agreed.

Thane to Solapur is a long drive of over 400 Kms. But the road is good. We arrived in Solapur by 4 pm.

Datta Chavan, a CPI-M activist, asked us to meet him at the Bhaiyya Chowk. A statue of Shahir Annabhau Sathe is prominently placed in the Bhaiyya Chowk. Sathe was influenced by communist ideology. He was a member of Communist Party’s Lal Bawta Kalapathak. That could be the reason why they chose Bhaiyya Chowk to assemble and begin their march to Hutatma Chowk which was about a mile away. It was the ‘Shahid Divas’ they said. On March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, were hanged to death by the British in the Lahore jail.

A young boy was waving DYFI flag vigorously and was enjoying it. Datta Chavan introduced Arvind and me to Prof Gaikwad and Prof Dr Meena Gaikwad. Dr Meena said that her doctoral thesis was on Beedi workers’ lives and issues; she invited us to meet her at her residence the next day. We could not have asked for a better opportunity for getting insights and information about the Beedi workers issues.

We marched along with the rally to Hutatma chowk in Solapur where the busts of four martyrs are placed. They were hanged by the British in 1931 for giving Solapur a four day ‘freedom’ (May 9 to 11) from the British Raj.

A slogan during the march demanded work for every hand, or else an unemployment allowance. I was reminded of Dunu Roy who had worked out a scheme for providing 240 days of work to every person. He championed the ‘Right to Work’. That comes out of ‘Directive Principles of State Policy.’ He authored a paper on providing 240 days of work, but it somehow fell through the crack because of fissiparous tendencies of the left-wing unions.

(I clarify here that I am not a CPI-M supporter, or for that matter not a supporter of any political party. I am a student of labour relations.)

As I got down from my car near the CPI-M office next day, I met Mr. Narsaiyya Adam who had just arrived. I had seen his photographs and had written a blog post on his autobiography, so I recognized him and wished him. He was expecting us.

Mr. Narsaiyya Adam or Adam Master as he is popularly called, has done outstanding work of organizing workers. His well-known contribution is that he has created low-cost housing for 40,000 workers. (More about it in my subsequent blog posts). It is amazing life story of a man who has studied only up to 9^th standard but has left indelible mark on the lives of people in Solapur.

We explained the purpose of our visit and Adam Master spoke for a long time explaining the situation of beedi workers and the industry.

“It was a double whammy. Vajpayee sarkar made the Cigarette Act applicable to the Beedi industry in 2004.”

(Note: The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003, is a comprehensive law which prohibits tobacco advertising and regulate the trade, production, supply, and distribution of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The primary goal of COTPA is to reduce tobacco use in India. This law prohibits the promotion or advertisement of cigarettes and other tobacco products, including trademarks or brand names.)

“I studied the ill effects of tobacco. One cigarette gives out nicotine and tar equivalent to ten beedies.”

(Note: This argument keeps coming to you when you speak to anyone in Solapur. They also add that beedi uses Tendu leaf while cigarette uses chemically treated paper and the tobacco content in a cigarette is ten times the tobacco in a beedi. The suggestion that beedi will cause cancer is not denied outright but juxtaposed with smoking cigarette the threat is overplayed is the suggestion).

“You can’t club cigarette and beedi together. It happened due to Cigarette lobby.”

“The 2003 legislation included Beedi industry in its purview. That started the downslide of the Beedi industry. We organized a morcha of 50 thousand workers. Sitaram Yechuri understood the issue and took us to meet Dr Manmohan Singh. He listened to us sympathetically and said, ‘We can’t create new jobs, but we will not destroy existing jobs.’ He understood our problem. But he said that the statutory warning must be printed on all beedi packets (called Katta locally). The warning occupied 40% area on the Katta, it was increased to 65% and later to 85%. Isn’t that ridiculous? A katta (pack of beedies is so small, tell me how to put the label then?

“On top of this they charge GST of 18% on raw material and 28% GST and excise duty on beedies. This is passed on to the consumer. Poor people will not be able to afford beedies.” (Today a beedi costs one rupee). Adam Master was concerned about the future of Beedi industry, and more about its 70 thousand workers.

“Beedi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976 came in force in 1976. The workers are now entitled to PF and Pension, Gratuity, Bonus, Maternity Leave and, moreover, to Minimum Wages. Earlier the industry paid cess and out of that fund children were educated, and health care was managed. But in 2016 it was stopped.”

“Almost all beedi workers are women. They roll about 1000 beedies in a day. When they take it for ‘Maap’ (measurement, weighing of the final product. Workers are piece rated) the employer applies ‘Gulla Katta.’ They take away two gulla kattas from each worker – one gulla katta is 25 beedies so they just take away 50 beedies. These do not count as output and no payment is made for these 50 beedies.”

(Note: Obviously these 50 beedies find their way to the market and this, readers will appreciate, is the first formal systemic step of exploitation of labour. This practice is accepted, nobody raises voice against it.)

“The beedies rolled by women workers are then inspected for quality. The law says that not more than 5% beedies can be rejected – but in practice it is much more. This practice is called ‘Chhaat Beedi’.”

“A small chunk of the produce is lost here. Obviously, it is exploitatively implemented because many ‘good’ quality beedies are also rejected, and rejection sometimes exceeds 5% of the lot. Then payment is made.”

“The minimum wages for the workers rolling beedies were defined in November 2014 at Rs 372 for 1000 beedies, but in practice Rs 222 are paid. Surprisingly the Government has agreed to this practice which is in shocking breach of law. And why they are not revisiting minimum wages? It has been eleven years since minimum wages were defined. Such revision happens for other industries, but not for the beedi industry.”

“A woman rolling beedies makes about Rs 4500 per month.”

Under Sec 20 of the Minimum Wages Act it is stipulated that ‘in the case of a claim arising out of payment of less than the minimum rates of wages, the payment to the employee of the amount by which the minimum wages payable to him exceed the amount actually paid, together with the payment of such compensation as the Authority may think fit, not exceeding ten times the amount of such excess.’

Long and short of the story is that the law says – if you do not pay minimum wages, the worker can claim ten times the difference as compensation, which can be a huge amount.

It is against this backdrop that we must understand the exploitation of Beedi workers.

“West Bengal has maximum number of beedi workers; they must be 15-20 lakhs” Adam Master said. “Fifteen to twenty lakhs? Have I heard you right?” I asked. “That’s right. And a large number of them are Muslims. There is no control there. Mamata is doing nothing about them”

Google tells us ‘The government estimates around 45 lakh beedi workers, with the majority being women working in home-based settings. Trade unions suggest that the number could be as high as 8o lakh, including those involved in beedi trade and tendu leaf collection. According to the government data, there are 49.82 lakh registered beedi workers, with 36.25 lakh being women.’

Arvind and I met Beedi workers and visited their home. More about the Beedi Industry, its workers and their life in my next Blog Post.

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”