Labour minister inaugurates beedie workers’ all India conference

Labour minister inaugurates beedie workers’ all India conference

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Feb 20: Akhila Bharatiya Beedi Mazdoor Maha Sangh organized its tenth triennial All India Conference at Radhakrishna Mandir on Feb 20, Saturday. 











Labour Minister B N Bachche Gowda inaugurated the event and said that 95 percent of the 6 lakh beedie workers in the district are house wives. Speaking about beedie labour, he said that beedie manufacturers will make a profit of Rs 48 crore if one labourer rolls 8,000 beedies. Although the beedie industry is small, it involves a number of people such as agents, owners, and workers, he observed.

The minister said that he does not encourage beedie smoking, but believes in working for the survival of the workers in the industry. He urged the state government to provide common wages for beedie workers. Informing that the issue of hiking wages was already discussed in the High Court, the minister said that at present the minimum wages is Rs 100 throughout the country, adding that this does not apply to all the districts.

He alleged that the government has failed to protect the interests of beedie workers. He also expressed concern over the presence of a large number of registered and unregistered beedie associations, which do not pay minimum wages to the beedie labourers. He urged the state government to provide identity and bonus cards to all the workers, which includes benefits such as maternity allowance, scholarships, and health facilities. A number of complaints have been received that benefits are not reaching labourers in urban areas, he said. The minister opined that the problems of beedie workers can be understood only by interacting with the workers. 

Although the government has decided to provide facilities such as housing loans at low interest and marriage loans in the range of Rs 5,000 – Rs 25,000, no survey has been conducted to identify beneficiaries and the statistics available are all wrong, he said.

K Vishwanath Shetty made the welcome speech. Dinakar Rao Joshi, the all India secretary of BMS; K R Poonja, the state president of BMS; Kumar Arjun Singh, the working president of ABBMM Sangh were also present during the programme.