Dhuliyan, one of the major hubs of the bidi industy in West Bengal, projects the grim story of child labour, exploitation, poverty and deprivation of basic rights
Along the banks of Ganga in the town of Dhuliyan in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, 11-year-old Rubina Ansari rolls bidis, a popular leafy country cigar, along with her family in their brick home. Rubina and nearly every other child like her in Dhuliyan works through the tobacco dust to feed India's near limitless demand for the thin cigars. She joined the profession when she was only seven.
Painting a grim picture of the implementation of the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2012, in the State, a recent survey conducted by two NGOs, Marfat, and Child Rights and You, reveals that 75.22 per cent of children in Dhuliyan are engaged in bidi-rolling. The town is one of the major hubs of the bidi industry in the State.
The survey report, released last month, points at gross violations of child labour laws — 74.49 per cent of females above the age of six years are engaged as bidi labourers and 32.80 per cent of girls working in the industry are below 14 years.
Rubina's town was once a textile centre where her family wove scarves and sarongs for generations on handlooms. Then, river Ganga caused flooding that destroyed the family's house — and its loom. Meanwhile, merchants from other States realised the cheap labour there would be ideal for bidi work. Bidi labourers in Dhuliyan are paid Rs.75 per 1,000-1,500 bidis rolled, which is much lower than the Rs.162 mentioned in the Minimum Wages Act of West Bengal. The survey, which covered 1,750 households in the area, also portrayed the poor implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. According to data, 64.49 per cent of children have never gone to schools because their parents lacked the means, if not the willingness, to educate them.
In a town like Dhuliyan, where over 60 per cent of the population lives in conditions of extreme poverty, child labour is a complex issue. Poverty being one of the main drivers of child labour, parents put their children to work out of compulsion. The bidi-rolling industry has been forcing the involvement of children, especially minor girls between the age between eight and 10, as part of a working family. The dominant share of bidi labourers is that of women, because men have the option of going out of Dhuliyan or Murshidabad for work, but the social ethos is not in favour of women working outside their homes.
Widespread exploitation, particularly, of women and minor girls in the industry by middlemen, sub-contractors as well as factory owners, is rampant. Women workers including minor girls suffer from various health problems like lung infections and tuberculosis. There is also the vested interest of the powerful bidi industry and bidi tycoons who perpetuate the employment of children as it lessens the collective bargaining power of adult labourers and trade unions, thus keeping the wages far below the minimum rates prescribed in relevant laws. Thus child labour in Dhuliyan in the context of the bidi industry presents a classic case of the vicious cycle: Poverty leads to more child labour, more child labour decreases employment opportunities and wages for adults, leading to perpetuation of poverty and further engagement of children as labour.
Sadly, the road to realisation of the minimum wages for bidi workers in Dhuliyan (and in other areas of India) is full of pitfalls and travails because the industry operates mainly through the household production mode, which is unorganised by its very nature. The women and children, who constitute the majority of work force, lack the social and cultural freedoms to get organised and struggle consistently for their rights and entitlements.
There seems to be a complete failure in the implementation of laws regarding prohibition of children in hazardous industries like bidi manufacturing, construction, brick kilns and stone quarries etc. But the question does arise: Even if the present laws are applied properly and child labour is completely banned, how would the households depending heavily on child labour and incomes be compensatedIJ It would also be interesting to measure the impact of the amended version of the ClPR Act which seeks to ban the working of adolescents in bidi and other hazardous industries, in line with the various international conventions of child labour and rights of the children. Given the poor wage rates and consequent low incomes, parents in Dhuliyan are often not in a position to continue the education of their children and, hence, forced to put them into productive employment for the sake of the entire household.
However, without provisions of adequate compensation of the affected households such a law would have a disastrous effect not only at the household level but also on the overall economy of Dhuliyan which is almost exclusively dependent on bidi industry. The effective implementation of the RTE Act and itsprovisions is perhaps one of the major weapons to ensure a better future for the children in Dhuliyan. Education is the key to get out of their life of drudgery as bidi-rollers.
The need of the hour is awareness and consequent actions on part of trade unions, Government departments and civil society organisations to make employers accountable on issues related to child labour.