A 'pictorial warning' to beedi industry

Mysore, May 27 (UNI) The fate of lakhs of beedi workers in Karnataka hangs in balance for come June one and beedi packets will have to carry the mandatory skull and bones logo, a pictorial warning to smokers.

Already facing a crisis due to a changed economic scenario and the strong cigarette industry which had been making quiet inroads in their territory, the warning sign may deal a serious blow to the livelihood of these workers, according to top industry sources.

The prescribed statutory warning directs companies to carry bone and skull pictures with two text messages 'which have no relation to the product inside,' industry sources said.

Manufacturers are worried that people may stop purchasing beedis due to the pictorial warnings.

According to them, it was an attempt by the Health Ministry to throttle the beedi industry on which the poor depended for a living.

Karnataka could feel the heat more as it was one of the major beedi manufacturing centres in the country.

It would become mandatory for beedi producers to print the warning sign leaving no space for them to put their trademarks, according to Mysore Beedi Mazdoor Association (TMBMA).

TMBMA President and Former Minister Tanveer Sait told UNI that Karnatka was one of the major contributors to the beedi industry and as such the mondatatory pictorial warning had come as another shock to the poor.

The industry is primarily rural-based and labour intensive. It provides employment to workers mainly from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharasthra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Majority of the beedi workers belong to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes, most of them falling under the unorganised sector.

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