No job for beedi workers as industry stops production

Mangaluru, 08 April 2016: The beedi industry is the third largest employer after agriculture and construction is in the verge of extinction due to government policies. 

 

Dakshina Kannada which is one of the largest producers of beedis will be highly effected if this basic employment of lakhs of people of the coastal region is stopped. 

 

The industry has come to a halt due to the government’s notification insisting on anti-tobacco warning pictures on packets that came into force from April 1.

 

The beedi producers all over the state have stopped packing beedies, after exhausting the stock of old wrappers during the seven day grace time.

 

The Government of India has issued a notification dated Oct 15, 2014, necessitating printing of pictorial warnings on beedi packets, covering 85 per cent of each side of the packet.

 

Beedis cannot be produced or sold, without this new enhanced pictorial warning on packets, from April 1, 2016.

 

"The practical impossibility implies that the beedi industry cannot implement the new warning rules in its present form. Therefore it is not possible to produce beedis without violating the law," the release issued by All India Beedi Industry Federation said. 

 

"Being a law abiding industry, there is no option but to stop production.... The government has been indifferent to the plight of the beedi industry, despite repeated representations from various stakeholders. All the workers, mainly women in rural areas, engaged by the industry have been rendered jobless overnight," the release said.