Child labourers keep home fires burning in beedi colony

MYSORE, DEC 1: The United States calls it child labour. For the residents of around 1,000 houses in Aziz Sait Nagar or Beedi Colony of My...

MYSORE, DEC 1: The United States calls it child labour. For the residents of around 1,000 houses in Aziz Sait Nagar or Beedi Colony of Mysore, it is a simple question of survival. “Rs 50 per thousand beedis rolled is too tempting a rate,” says Rehman, whose seven-year-old son is employed’ in the family business. “If I have to use my children to make some money, then so be it. After all, most of the 1,000-odd families here can barely make ends meet.”

The colony is oblivious to the ban on the import of Mangalore Ganesh Beedis by the United States for allegedly using children to roll beedis. Rehman’s house itself is a mini beedi rolling unit that churns out 3,500 beedis per day, with all his family members lending a hand. Same is the case in more than 800 of the 1,000 houses here, which roll beedis for almost all the major brands.

While companies like Mangalore Ganesh Beedis enroll and register men as workers, the real production is done with the help of the entire family, including children. In fact, Rehman is a bit puzzled when told about the fire over, what he considers, a little smoke. “Jishen, my seven-year-old deaf son,” he says, matter-of-factly, “contributes like my entire family in beedi making.”

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Equally flummoxed is Iqbal, who has initiated all the five members of his household into rolling beedis. “I don’t know what’s wrong in my children working in my house. They are all in their mid-teens and all are experts in rolling beedis,” he says. The residents also insist that the children are never coerced into the profession. However, since daily earnings of the “enrolled’ workers are linked to their output, it is fair to assume that there is a lot of pressure on the children of a family, just like on the adults, to work long hours.

Lokesh, a social worker, feels the only way to check the trend is to fix the workers’ wages and not link it directly to the output. “This way maybe we can lessen the burden on children,” he says.

K C Showkath Pasha, secretary of the Mysore Beedi Mazdoor Association, says major beedi brands, including Mangalore Ganesh Beedi, are not to blame. It is the small-time brands which tend to exploit workers, he claims. These fly-by-night operators do not register names of workers, thus denying them provident fund and other mandatory facilities, he points out.

As for Mangalore Ganesh Beedis, Pasha says around 8,000 workers in the district have registered themselves with the company and are enjoying several benefits, including funding for their children’s education.The company also insists it is in the clear. Rampriya Das, spokesman for Mangalore Ganesh Beedi, says his firm is not “directly involved in beedi production as it is let out on contract”. However, he added that they would cancel a contract if there was “any evidence of the involvement of child labour at the production end”.