Hyderabad: Over 400 beedi companies across the state downed shutters on Monday to protest the Centre’s order to publish statutory warnings covering 85 per cent of the beedi packets. The closure has hit the livelihood of 8 lakh beedi workers, mostly women. The statutory warnings, that caution smokers of the ill-effects of using tobacco, now cover 40 per cent of the beedi packets. Beedi companies have decided to stay shut till February 24 as part of a national-level agitation.
The TS government has decided to take up the issue with Centre to save the livelihood of the workers at a time when consecutive droughts have already left lakhs of people jobless. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s home district Medak is the worst-affected with over 2 lakh people employed in the beedi industry. “Pan masala and gutka are more dangerous than beedis. Despite the Centre imposing a ban on gutka, it continues to be sold freely everywhere and the manufacturers do thousands of crores of business every year. The Centre should concentrate on eliminating gutkha completely before controlling beedis on which over 2 crore people are dependent nationwide and over 8 lakh in TS. We will take up this issue in Parliament and fight till the Centre withdraws these orders,” said Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, TRS MP from Medak.
Telangana produces 50 crore beedis per day. About 70 per cent of women in rural areas earn their livelihood by making beedis. The companies pay Rs 153 for every 1,000 beedis made on an average. Women earn up to Rs 5,000 per month.
