Mangaluru: Nearly two lakh people of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi depend on it for a living. Many of them happen to be women. But a fortnight ago on April 6, the beedi industries called a halt to the rolling in protest against the Centre’s new COTPA guidelines that insist on a more prominent health warning on the beedi covers besides a mention of their expiry date.
All of a sudden, families dependant on the industry for their livelihood, found themselves with nothing to live on. The women, who get paid Rs 161 for rolling 1,000 beedies, on an average manage to roll out about 700 to 800 beedies a day, earning around Rs 100 in the process. But with even this meagre earning out of their reach, the workers found themselves in distress. Following protests , a tripartite meeting was called to discuss the situation and now the beedi factory owners have relented and the women are back to rolling beedis. But labour unions here believe their livelihood remains at risk and want the new COTPA guidelines scrapped for good.
“A meeting of beedi factory owners, officials and unions was held in Delhi on April 21 where it was decided that the COTPA guidelines would be eased and those issued in 2008 would remain in place. At a meeting in Mangaluru, labour officials strictly asked the owners to begin beedi rolling and and they finally agreed,” says Beedi Mazdur Sangh president, Vishwanath Shetty.
