Bangalore: The proposed amendment to the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act has put the livelihood of lakhs of women at risk. It is said in one study. The inclusion of sub-section 10A(3) in the law makes it mandatory for a person to obtain a licence, permission and registration for the manufacture, sale and distribution of any tobacco product. This has put the livelihood of lakhs of women at risk.
“If this subsection is implemented in law, it will prove to be an extremely harsh measure for those small sellers, who do not have the capacity or the financial means to obtain such a license.” It states that tobacco products are mostly sold by small sellers and hawkers, who have only a small spoon to sell tobacco products.
Most of the sale of bidis comes from small shops located under trees and on footpaths, which will not be recognized or licensed by municipal corporations. This is what the authors of this report titled “A Study on the Status of Alternative Employment Schemes for Beedi Makers” say.
read also
“Therefore the entire sale of beedi will suddenly come to a standstill. If the sale of bidi comes to a standstill, then the entire beedi industry will come to a standstill.” The study assesses the impact of this amendment on lakhs of female beedi ‘rollers’ in the country.
The report said that until large-scale skill-building and alternative employment is provided for their livelihood, beedi is the only viable occupation for millions of women in the country engaged in the business. About 7.7 percent of adults in India smoke beedis, which account for 85 percent of the market for all smoking products in India. The study claimed that the beedi industry would suffer the most from the anti-tobacco law.
The study pointed out that the manufacturing process is highly labor intensive. This cottage industry, which is more than a hundred years old, mostly employs workers in the unorganized sector, mainly women workers from poor households. Of the total beedi workers, 96 percent live at home, while only four percent work in factories. According to the study, the majority (84 per cent) of domestic workers are women while only 16 per cent are men. (agency)