Chapter - III Area of Study and Respondents - A Brief Profile • Introduction • A Brief Profile of Davangere District 01. Geographical Area 02. Population 03. Agricultural Land Holdings 04. Education 05. Health Care Facility • A Brief Profile of Taluks selected for the Study 01. Davangere Urban Area 02. Davangere Rural Area 03. Harihar Taluk 04. Harapanahalli Taluk 05. Channagiri Taluk 06. Honnali Taluk • A Brief Profile of Respondents 01. Composition of Respondents 02. Taluk-wise Distribution of Beedi Workers 03. Composition of Sample Size - Rural Vs Urban 04. Taluk Wise Distribution of Respondents 05. Size of the Family 06. Number of Child Workers Engaged in Beedi Rolling Activities 07. Level of Education of Respondent Workers 08. Monthly Income of Respondent-workers from Beedi Rolling 09. Indebtedness and Bondage 10. Reasons for Borrowing Loan 11. Mother tongue (and Religion) of Respondent-workers • Conclusion
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Chapter - III
Area of Study and Respondents - A Brief Profile
• Introduction
• A Brief Profile of Davangere District
01. Geographical Area 02. Population 03. Agricultural Land Holdings 04. Education 05. Health Care Facility
• A Brief Profile of Taluks selected for the Study
01. Davangere Urban Area 02. Davangere Rural Area 03. Harihar Taluk 04. Harapanahalli Taluk 05. Channagiri Taluk 06. Honnali Taluk
• A Brief Profile of Respondents
01. Composition of Respondents 02. Taluk-wise Distribution of Beedi Workers 03. Composition of Sample Size - Rural Vs Urban 04. Taluk Wise Distribution of Respondents 05. Size of the Family 06. Number of Child Workers Engaged in Beedi Rolling
Activities 07. Level of Education of Respondent Workers 08. Monthly Income of Respondent-workers from Beedi
Rolling 09. Indebtedness and Bondage 10. Reasons for Borrowing Loan 11. Mother tongue (and Religion) of Respondent-workers
• Conclusion
Introduction
Beedi Industry plays an important role in the economic growth of the country. It
has provided employment opportunity to laklis of people and it is earning foreign
exchange by exporting its products to foreign countries. Beedi is exported to gulf
countries and UAE. It contributes to the state exchequer substantially in the form
of excise duty. Beedi workers in India account for the third largest component
of the work-force in Indian economy next only after agriculture and textile
industry. However, beedi workers live and work in conditions of poverty and
exploitation. The Industry is perhaps the only industry that possesses a unique
feature (which is of course inherent to its nature) of workers sitting and working
at home on part time and fiill time basis.
Beedi rolling as an industry has undergone considerable organizational changes
during the last the century from factory system to contract and household
systems. Till 1948, beedi rolling was undertaken in the premises (factories) of
manufacturers. But v/hen the Factories Act, 1948 was passed, and the term
factory was defined as any premises or precincts thereof wherein a
manufacturing process is being carried on with the aid of power and
employing more than 10 persons or where the manufacturing process is
carried on without the aid of power by employing more than 20 persons, the
beedi manufacturers stopped engaging the workers on their premises to avoid the
enforcement of the Provisions of Factories Act as well other Legislations. They
started contracting out beedi manufacturing to their agents, sub-agents, and to
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some of their trusted and loyal employees, relatives, etc on commission basis.
They also invented the household system of beedi manufacturing under which ?.
beedi roller was supplied with the rav/ materials by the manufacturer and v/as
required to deliver the rolled beedies to the manufacturer before collecting fresh
quantities of raw materials.
This new system enabled the manufacturers not only to be free from all statutory
obligations towards the workers but also to exploit the workers to the maximum
exient. The exploitation of beedi workers is stretched too far by the contractors,
sub-contractors, agents and sub-agents. These middlemen are acting like a
double edged sword getting handsome commission from the principal
marmfacturers and paying low rates of wages to the beedi workers. The plight of
beedi workers forced the Government of India ((JOI) to enact the Beedi and
Cigar Workers' Act in 1966 giving statutory protection to the workers by
bringing them within the scope of the term "employee". Because, the term
employee is defined in the Act to include any labourer who is given raw
materials by an employer or a contractor for being made into beedi at
home, and termed such a person as a home-worker. And the beedi
manufacturers challenged this Act and got stayed the implementation of the Act
on the ground that an out-worker is not a workman and they are not obliged to
provide benefits to out-workers. But to their ill-luck, the Supreme Court of India
upheld the Act and gave the verdict stating that an out-worker is also a
workman. Even after this decision of the Supreme Court, the beedi
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manufacturers have continued the contract and household systems of
manufacturing as these systems have proved to be more advantageous to them.
It is important to note that the majority of the workers are out-workers. A CSIR
Survey conducted way back in 1973 revealed that out of 36 lakh beedi workers,
only 1.8 lakh were employed in the factory sector while 28 lakli were in the non-
factory sector (the remaining 6.2 lakh, worker were engaged in the collection of
tendu leaves).
Beedi Industry, by and large, has remained in the unorganized sector providing
employment to a large number of persons. Beedi Industry has several
advantages over agriculture - the most significant among them being that
employment in beedi manufacturing need not be on full lime basis. It gainfully
contributes to individual and family income by providing supplementar>' work to
the entire family of the beedi workers. More importantly, women from
traditional muslim families (who do not go to work outside the four walls of
their homes due to their social customs), the old and the infirm, the unmarried
and the married women, and the disabled can all take to beedi rolling to cam
either a supplementary income or a livelihood. Beedi rolling is also taken up as
a part-time job by agricultural labourers during off-seasons. It is the only
industry where no machinery, major equipment, power, other infrastructural
facilities, and foreign exchanges are required. What is needed is tobacco and
kendu leaves, cotton thread, a scissor, a tin plate, a needle and a basket/tray for
each worker. While tobacco and leaves are supplied by the manufacturer-
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employers, the tools are purchased and/or owned by the workers themselves.
This is a peculiar feature of employment in this industry.
In this industry, more than 4.5 million workers are employed all over the
countr>'. But the industry is heavily concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Gujarat, Kamataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Tamil Nadu ib one of the major beedi manufacturing states though the raw
materials are, by and large, obtained from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Kamataka. During the last 25 to 30 years, there has been a considerable increase
in the number of beedi manufacturing units and beedi workers since the beedi
manufactures from Kerala shifted their business activities to this state due to
unionization of the workers and stringent statutory regulations.
After 1990s, Beedi Industr>' itself has been under pressure due to economic
liberalization policies - entr)' of tobacco multinationals and changing consumer
preferences towards non-beedi tobacco products. Beedi manufactures also claim
that changes in the taxation policy have led to competition between machine-
made-mini-cigarettes and labour intensive beedies. Kamataka is one of the
states in India wherein the beedi activities are predominant. According to an
estimate, there are 6 to 7 lakh beedi workers in the state.
In the light of above, a brief profile of the geographical area of the study and that
of the respondents is presented in this chapter. As already stated, the area
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selected for the present study comprises of five taluks of Davangere district viz.,
Channageri, Davangere, Harihar, Harapanahalli and Honnali taluks.
A Brief Profile of Davangere District
There are six taluks in Davangere district. Out of these six, respondents are
selected from five taluks and one taluk viz., Jagalur taluk is excluded as the
beedi workers are very few in this taluk. The five taluks selected for the study
are Channageri, Davangere, Harihar, Harapanahalli and Hoimali. Many beedi
workers are residing in these taluks. Therefore, a brief profile of Davangere
district with an emphasis on its labour force is presented in the following
paragraphs.
Davangere, which is at the centre of Kamataka State, has the history of over
1,200 years. This was the capital city of the Chalukya's according to the
inscriptions of 1121 AD. The historical evidences show that this was ruled by
the great Hoysala's. Till late 1997, it was one of the taluk headquarters of
Chitradurga district. It became a district headquarters on December 2, 1997.
The distance from this district headquarters to Bangalore is about 270 kms. The
major railway line and NH 4 connecting Bangalore and Pune (Maharashtra) pass
through this city. Davangere is known for its trade and commerce, and other
taluks are depending mainly on agriculture. The district consists of 57.99 square
kilometers of geographical area.
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01. Geographical Area
The district has a geographical area of 5,97,597 hectares of which 89,918
hectares are forest area and 93,286 hectares of land is not available for
cultivation. Because, it consists of 38,936 hectares of non-agricultural land,
20,533 hectares of barren land, and 33,817 hectares of non-cultivable land. That
means, out of 5,97,597 hectares of land in the district, only 4,14,393 hectares of
land (69.34%) is suitable for cultivation.
Out of 4,14,393 hectares of cultivable land, only 1,24,672 hectares of land is
irrigated (30.09%) with different sources of water such as bore wells (44,799