Death Marketing -2

Hypocrisy of bidi industry: OK to kill people, but not to raise taxes

Like every year before the national budget, some of our Members of Parliament, some labor leaders and some groups that reap the benefit, have become seemingly sensitive to the cause of the bidi workers. They claim, if the tax on bidi is increased during this coronavirus crisis, it would lead to a shutdown of the industry and eventually, around 2.5 to 3 million bidi workers would lose their jobs. To harness public opinion behind their false claim, they have paid a number of workers so that these workers take to the streets with these demands. The people who are benefited from the bidi industry have fabricated a false picture regarding the number of total workers in the bidi industry, a claim that has been refuted by a study by the National Board of Revenue (NBR). The reality is, the bidi industry employs only a total of 46,916 full-time equivalent workers, including the regular and contractual workers. Working in a bidi factory is highly hazardous and it pays very little, with average monthly income being Taka 1972, an amount insufficient to provide for a family. As a result, all the women and children of the family eventually have to get involved in the hazardous work of bidi making. Another study reveals that in northern districts where tobacco grows in plenty (particularly in Rangpur and Lalmonirhat), it is the cheap child labor that has kept the bidi industry alive. Child laborers constitute 60-65 percent of the workforce of bid industry. So, such inhumane death trade that thrives on exploitation should not be incentivized. Rather, the price of these products should be increased to discourage use among the public.