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 7.

Smouldering Tobacco in Nipani By no stretch of the imagination can tobacco be considered an essential crop; at best for some people it is a luxury, though a harmful one. Most countries in the world discourage smoking as it is hazardous to human health. Cigarette advertisements are banned in India. Of course smoking cigarettes is not the only way of consuming tobacco. In India number of bidi smokers can outnumber cigarette smokers. And the number of those who consume it in the form of gutkha or jarda is even larger. It is said that tobacco was brought to India by European traders three-four hundred years ago. Today India is the third largest producer of tobacco in the world. Nearly forty lakh farmer families survive on this crop. Of this figure a large number comes from those in the bidi-making business. In the old days bidi-making was one of the main sources of income in villages when it did not rain adequately. There were hardly any factories in rural area and bidi-making met that need. That activity could be done by anybody, anywhere; including at one’s home. No education was necessary. Even women could do it. In fact majority of the bidi workers were, and are, women. When trade union leaders started their activities in rural area they almost always started with organizing the bidi-makers. Though tobacco was consumed all over the country the States of Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the main tobacco growers. The tobacco in Karnataka was supposed to be 136

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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage