In a startling revelation, a recent study has revealed that bidi industry in Uttar Pradesh (UP) is openly flouting minimum wages act. According to the study, bidi manufacturers are getting a meagre '25 per day in the district of Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. In their study, the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) revealed that in Kannauj, which has one of the highest numbers of bidi workers in the district of Uttar Pradesh, the rollers are paid substantially low i.e., between '20 and '25 for 1,000 bidis. Voluntary Health Association of India executive director Bhavna Mukhopadhyay said that this stands as blatant violation of minimum wages acts and the official order of 2006 that calculated the wage as '60 per day (official order ministry of labour & employment), Uttar Pradesh. “Also as per the minimum wages act in the state of UP the amount for bidi workers are fixed as '119.23 per day (ministry of labour & employment),” she said. During the survey, children shared that they help their parents in the bidi work and said often they take over the work if some member of the family is out. “Most of the children do work before and after of their usual school hour and during the weekend,” added Ms Mukhopadhyay. The experts also found women and children and children complaining of breathing problems, pain and cough due to the long hours that they spend rolling bidis. Also the district level data also shows a high level of TB prevalence among the villagers. “In addition, the bidi rolling villages are seemingly poverty stricken and the team could easily make out that the rates of malnutrition and anemia are high among children and women,” further said Ms Mukhopadhyay. During the focused group discussions, it was repeatedly pointed out some of the government schemes started for the welfare of bidi workers such as insurance and education grant but the bidi rollers, both in Guru Sahai ganj and Yusuf Bhagavan showed their unawareness regarding the schemes. As per the record of ministry of labour and employment, India is home to 64.26 lakh estimated and identified bidi workers and the state of UP has a population of 4.5 lakh working in bidi industry.
