Labour Day: Poor wages, well being dangers proceed to plague beedi staff of Odisha’s Kendrapara

By Express News Service

KENDRAPARA: While Labour Day on May 1 celebrates staff and their struggles throughout the globe, it holds little significance for hundreds of beedi binders in Kendrapara who put their lives in danger and wrestle for a pittance however proceed to be disadvantaged of presidency welfare advantages.

Sources say that there are no less than 5,000 beedi binders within the coastal district who’re depending on this precarious livelihood. They work from daybreak to nightfall for a meagre Rs 80-150 per day (Rs 100 per thousand beedis). 

Besides, beedi staff throughout all ages are prone to respiratory issues and undergo from tuberculosis, persistent bronchitis, bronchial asthma, and so on because of the nature of the work. Jagajiban Das, a commerce union chief of Kendrapara stated, working with tobacco day by day is hazardous.

Most beedi staff undergo from TB and persistent backache. Many of them additionally develop ache in knee joints as they sit cross-legged for big a part of the day. Women comprise the most important a part of the workforce. Children too pitch in and are paid the least of all beedi staff whatever the quantity of labor accomplished, added Das.

Most staff within the beedi trade reside beneath poverty line and are available from landless or small-scale agricultural households. As rolling beedis is the one supply of survival for a lot of, they work below excessive circumstances dealing with hazardous tobacco mud and fumes with no protecting gear and are paid very low wages. 

“We make 800 to 1,500 beedis in a day but cannot earn  more than Rs 150,” stated  Jinat Khatun (20), a beedi employee from Dobondha village. 

Amalin Patnaik, advisor to the civil society motion of beedi staff in India and advisor to the Beedi Shramik Union, stated poverty, lack of relaxation, low immunity, lengthy work hours all make beedi staff susceptible to quite a few well being dangers.

The plight of beedi staff is comparable throughout the State as their dwelling expenditure grows quickly whereas their low wages stay unchanged. Since they work in an unorganised surroundings, they’re economically exploited with out authorities advantages, he stated. 

On the opposite hand, an official of the district labour workplace stated, “Beedi workers are entitled to get free medical facilities, house loans and scholarships for children. Welfare commissioner office at Salepur is helping beedi workers.”