The Bidi industry today finds its foundations on the labour of women in majority from rural areas all across the country, Murshidabad in West Bengal, Tirupattur and Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Vadodra in Gujarat, countless areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka. Women make up 90% of this labour sector,with around 5 million people involved in this industry. What reveals itself when we explore further into their working conditions is hours of under-paid manual work, countless health problems, a sense of remaining trapped in an endless cycle of this system between the contractors, the bidi barons, the resources they provide and the wages they deserve but don’t get, familial tensions, sexual exploitation for quite a few, inability to step out of the system and educate themselves and their families. Primarily the reason why we initiated this project was to provide a better set of alternatives that wouldn’t compromise their health. Skin cancer, TB, lung cancer and other respiratory system disorders are some of the complexities, and to get a more clear, realistic understanding of their situation we started our own field research with CMC Vellore, Praxis, India team in Chennai led by Mr. Stanley Joseph and D Arul Selva Rehabilitation Centre in Vellore and Tirupattur. Drawing the pros and cons gets very nuanced here and leads one to think about what kind of an alternative can one think of that leads to eradication of the oppressive tendencies such industries like bidi hold and ensure that they get all the pros of the industry too. Our study focused on women who had given up on bidi rolling and had found other alternatives for themselves, those who had left bidi rolling for other opportunities but had to come back to it, those who want to leave bidi rolling, but are unable to do so, and those who want to stay in it. We had a diversity of opinions being shared with us. The tools we used for field research (made under the guidance of Praxis team) demanded a detailed discussion with the rollers themselves, their perceptions about their position in this system and the whole of the system in general.
The women shared the ailments they suffer, like tobacco flakes pricking their skins, sitting them in the same position for hours while rolling lead to muscle numbness and joint pains. The govt. has provided villages in Tamil Nadu with a TV so a lot of women would constantly sit in front of the TV, keep rolling and have no body mobility. Watching TV helps in continuous, longer hours hours of bidi rolling but this act also deducts physical activity. Such immobility only worsens their health. A lot of them also complained of pain in the eyes, strained vision since all these households are not equipped with proper lighting. It leads to reduced vision which affects the quality of their work further and bidi contractors start cutting down their salaries further. The bidi barons provide no equipment like gloves or masks to protect their skin from the tobacco dust that settles onto sensitive regions and causes irritation. As working women, they often have a lot of dependants, children, often in-laws too. In plenty of cases it had turned out that the husband was an abusive alcoholic who would forcefully take away some of her money to indulge further in alcoholism. Women and children’s position in this industry has been explored in depth by Dr. Mira Aghi.
Dr. Aghi is a behavioural scientist who has been involved with the Advocacy Forum for Tobacco Control (AFTC) since its inception. She has been working with the anti-tobacco movement for more than 30 years. She was the first woman from Asia to be awarded the WHO Gold Medal on Tobacco Control in 1989 and also received Tribute for Outstanding Service to Women,, International Network of Women against Tobacco, 2009. Dr. Aghi is the co-author of the 1982 and 1991 UICC manuals on Smoking and Children, as well as the author of the 1999 WHO Strategy on Women’s Health as affected by tobacco.
During our conversation, she spoke up vehemently against the structure of such family systems that continue to control the economic and personal growth of women. She explained that girls are taught from an early age to roll bidis because that is one of the most vital qualities such families seek in brides- if she does know how to roll bidis, they get their son married to her to ensure that through bidi rolling they have a constant source of income. A woman isn’t just married into a new household, she is made to be married to an archaic patriarchal system that values the financial demands of the patriarchal figure in the household over the needs and welfare of the woman herself. Though quite a few women workers we talked to mentioned that bidi rolling gave them financial independence and the confidence to run her own household thus they were able to extract themselves from such family systems and live independently. The best things about the industry are that the raw materials are received at the door steps of the house, they work from home which makes them feel safe and protected. They can look after their kids while rolling bidis. The payments made to them are immediate, they can easily get loans since it’s a permanent job, they get Provident Fund Savings too so they can easily manage to hold weddings for their children, buy jewellery, and other expensive affairs in rural households.
We came across a part-time bidi rolling woman and college student who claimed that she was unable to quit because the income meets her educational expenses. In her case, this job ensured that she gets to continue her education.Other jobs like shop assistants, courier services that demand fixed and long hours of work with tolerable pay interfere with her study routine since she would not be able to dedicate time to her course work; in bidi rolling she studies while doing the job and makes money from it to fund her educational demands thus bidi rolling conveniently fits into her life. Another case we came across was with a woman who was a second generation bidi roller and had 43 years of experience. When asked why she continues with this job she explained that she was able to pay off small family debts, get her children married and look after herself alone since she was a widow, she wanted to leave but she had no other skills, she could not do hard labour that demanded a lot of physical exertion, she had picked up this skill of rolling from her parents and that’s all she can offer to earn for herself. The only common response we received from both of these women, and all the others when we asked will you let your kids pick up this form of employment was a fervent no because they are not paid enough, they can invest upto 14 hours of work and yet just earn as low as Rs. 50 per bundle of a thousand bidis. Only those who are registered as bidi rollers with a bidi brand can avail the benefits from Welfare Funds and other Government schemes so they get the PF savings and loans easily. Life is far too unpredictable for unregistered rollers, who are mostly senior citizens who don’t have any other skills, thus cannot make a shift in employment and women who are kept in ignorance of their rights and cheated by barons and contractors.