There are strict laws that have been made and implemented to curb child labor in India in the last few years. Although it has reduced, child labor has still not been completely done away with. Also, the link between production of beedis and child labor in India is still very strong. There are still thousands of young children who are made to work in beedi manufacturing units. A major reason for this could be the fact that there is a huge demand for beedis in local and international market.
Beedis and child labor in India
Beedis, or bidis, are small handmade cigarettes. Because they are small in size, they need small delicate hands to roll. This is one of the major reasons why children as young as 7 and 8 years are employed by beedi manufacturers to roll bidis. These children are made to work long hours everyday rolling these handrolled cigarettes and are paid meager amounts or, in some cases, nothing at all for their hard work.
There are many strict rules and laws against employing children under the age of 14 years in India. But it is not very difficult for these beedi manufacturing units to get away with employing children as a large percentage of them are not registered. Some others do not get affiliated with any labor welfare organizations. This makes it almost impossible to track workers in such units.
Another major reason for this thriving business is the ever-increasing demand for beedis in markets worldwide. More and more people are taking to smoking bidis and getting hooked on to them. This is putting greater pressure on this small industry, forcing them to hire cheap labor. The cheapest labor that is easily available is children. So the whole circle of demand and supply is also highly responsible for this unfortunate social phenomenon.
Child labor in India was rampant at one point of time. But strict laws and greater awareness has surely reduced the number of such cases. But even now, it has not been completely wiped out. We need stricter implementation of laws, greater awareness among people and a more organized labor sector to be able to completely eliminate this social evil.
