Cash for votes could lure lowly paid beedi workers in Tirunelveli

Tirunelveli: As the songs and speeches of election campaigns blare around them, the women of Melapalayam in Tirunelveli district watch, even as their hands continue deftly rolling beedis.
Beedi rolling caught on in Tirunelveli district about 35 years ago after powerlooms pushed out handlooms. Beedi unit owners from Kerala offered the unemployed locals daily employment rolling beedis."Since women can work from home, it became an instant success. More people took it up not realizing that the profession is hazardous to health in the long run," said Rasool Mydeen, general secretary, Marumalarchi Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam, which has been working with the labourers.
There are 4 lakh beedi workers in Tirunelveli district, most of them women. Beedi workers suffer chronic lung ailments, tuberculosis and cancer due to exposure to tobacco dust. Beedi unit owners, however, make huge profits off the health and effort of these poor women, said Mydeen. A worker gets half a kg of leaves and 200g of tobacco dust as raw materials, and is paid 150 for a day's work of rolling 1,000 beedis. "But one beedi pack containing 25 beedis costs 14," said trade union representatives. But there is no other work in this part of the state.
Close to 90% of the workers are Muslim women. Only 5% are men, who take care of administrative work and transporting consignments. Sexual exploitation of women workers is not uncommon, said R Mohan, general secretary of Tamil Nadu Beedi Workers Federation. The federation staged a protest and now women are employed in administrative roles as well.
Traditionally, the poor beedi workers are AIADMK voters and women vote the way their families ask them to. "The irony is that these workers know that trade unions fight for their rights. They actively take place in meetings and pay annual subscription to the unions but they don't vote for Left parties in elections," said Mydeen. Since wages are low, the cash offered for votes during elections sways the workers, he added.