Athar Shamsi, UP

District Faizabad has around 10,000 beedi workers working in about 5 beedi factories, 90% of whom were women. The workers were being exploited by the Beedi factory owners and the Government officials were not doing anything about this.

The beedi workers were being paid Rs. 27 - Rs. 34 per thousand beedis, whereas the minimum wages prescribed by the Government was much higher. However, whenever the workers or the beedi trade union members visited the Labour Department to know what the prescribed minimum wages was, the officials used to tell them that there was no such order prescribing the minimum wages available with the department. The applicant claims that this was purposely done by the beedi factory owners in connivance with the labour department officials to earn more profits. On the other hand, since the union and workers did not know what the prescribed amount was, they could not negotiate with the owners.

Another major issue was the deteriorating health condition of these workers. Due to the constant exposure of these workers to tendu leaves, tobacco and related products, many of these workers suffered from TB, cancer, skin problems, etc. Since 90% workers were women, they used to bring their children to the factories thus exposing them to the diseases as well. Though there were several health schemes for the beedi workers by the Government, but these schemes only existed on papers in Faizabad due to which the workers were not getting any benefits. Moreover, there was an order by Rita Sharma, Secretary of Ministry of Rural Development for teaching the workers alternative trade for survival so that they could be weaned away from the beedi making trade, but this order was not being implemented as well.

Therefore, the applicant who is an advocate and the General Secretary of Youth Round Table Society along with Abhishek Soni, another social activist, decided to file RTIs to know the exact status of various initiatives taken by the Government for the welfare of people.

The applicant filed 3 RTIs in this case. The first one was to the Deputy Labour Commissioner to get a copy of the order of fixing the minimum wages for the beedi workers. In this RTI, he also asked about how many beedi factories were there in the district and if any proposal was there for providing identification to the workers. The second RTI was addressed to the Labour Welfare Department seeking details of various schemes for the workers and how many workers were benefited from it. The third RTI addressed to the Chief Secretary of UP Government asking about what steps had been taken for implementing the order of Rita Sharma related to providing alternative livelihood training to beedi workers. 

Through his RTI applications, several issues came to the fore. It was found out that the Beedi makers were getting around Rs.27-34 which was far less than the minimum wages stipulated by the Government which was Rs. 60. He also found out that only two factories were registered with the Labour Department whereas there were 5 factories operating in total, which means that 3 were operating illegally. In response to the second RTI, he received information that only 2 workers had been benefited from the various welfare schemes of the Government for beedi workers. In response to his third RTI, he was told that the BPL beedi workers have been identified for the alternative livelihood training. They would be imparted training based on their preference. Some Self Help Groups have also been formed for this purpose.  

The applicant claims that he received several threats over the phone over his efforts, but still that did not deter him to move further.

After receiving information, the applicant claims that various awareness camps were held for disseminating the information. He also interacted with the Union members regarding this, which got into a dialogue with the factory owners. This received ample coverage in various newspapers. The Union members and the workers then met the Chief Development Officer and submitted a memorandum to him appraising him of the situation and requesting for action. In the first RTI he was informed by the Labour Department that a date has been fixed with the factory owners to appraise them about the increase in wages. The meeting was finally held.

After much struggle of six months, the applicant claims that the wages of the workers has been increased to Rs. 52 per thousand beedi rolled. He claims that they are still fighting to further increase it to Rs. 60 as prescribed by the Government.