Child labour in the bidi industry of Bangladesh: An investigation

Child labour in bidi industries has legally been banned in Bangladesh. Following the Section 32 of the UN Charter on Child Rights, ‘State Parties recognise the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.’ Based on the Charter, the Government of Bangladesh has introduced a list of 38 hazardous jobs and banned children engagement with those tasks. Working at bidi and cigarette factories lies on the fourth position of the list. Besides, Bangladesh has ratified ILO Convention no 182 in 2001 which deals with hazardous child labour. Since the rules and policies regarding child rights are not enforced properly, bidi factory owners are deploying children in different stages of hazardous tobacco processing and bidi production.

According to a study, there are 117 bidi factories in Bangladesh and about 65,000 workers are occupied with the factories. They produce monthly and annually 405 and 4,865 crore sticks respectively. However, following the National Board of Revenue (NBR) research, there are 195 bidi factories in the country and 75,000 workers are engaged with the factories, although the factory owners have long been publicising fabricated information with deployed lobbyists, researchers and front groups that there are around 2.5 million workers currently working in bidi factories. However, the so-called researchers and lobbyists disagree to publish the exact number of child workers in the factories. But research, media reports and investigations by Tobacco Industry Watch Team at bidi factories have found shocking scenarios. According to information, most of the children are aged between 4 -12 years and are engaged in different stages of the bidi production process. After discussions with Haragaach bidi labour leaders and bidi factory workers, it has been found that there are 35 bidi factories in the district, which is 30% of all the bidi factories in the country and the number of bidi workers in the factories is about 40,000. Among the 40,000 labourers, half of them are children (50%), among the remaining 20,000, there are 12,000 female (30%) and 8,000 males (20%). Among the children, 15,000 regularly or irregularly attend school and the rest do not attend at all. The children are unaware about the health hazards or about their uncertain future for working with the bidi factories. According to the locals, the boys and girls who work in the bidi factories cannot cross the primary education boundary and the majority of them drop out when they are in the fifth grade. Similarly, discussions with bidi labourers and the journalists of Lalmonirhat reveals that there are nine bidi factories in the district, which is 7.7% of all the factories in the country, and there are around 21,000 labourers engaged in the factories, and 70% (14,700) of them are children aging from 4 – 14 years. The validity of the information has been found through direct observations in some of the bidi factories of the region. Investigations have found that 60-70% are children in the factories, and the scenario is more alarming at the domestic level as around 90 of the children are engaged with processing empty bidi shells or sticks.

Investigations have also found that usually children are engaged in the four stages of bidi production – (1) preparing empty bidi shells, (2) inserting chopped tobacco into the shells, (3) closing the shell tops and (4) preparing bidi packets. Among the tasks, bidi shell preparation is done in household level and the remaining are in the factories. Usually, children work in factories from 9am to 12am and make bidi shells from 4pm to 9pm at their residences. The bidi shells prepared at homes are taken to the factories to be inserted with processed tobacco and for packaging. Although the adults are responsible for preparing the packets, children are also found participating in packaging. Payment for the children to prepare bidi shells is very poor. A child, if working at a factory from 4pm to 9pm, can make on average around 4,500 shells and they are paid only Tk 7.50 per thousand shells. In the same way, a child from 8am to 12am can close on average around 5,000 shell tops and the wage is same for it –Tk 7.50 per thousand, i.e. a child earns Tk 35 a day on average. Following the locals, in most of the factories there are 12 working days in a month, and accordingly a child can earn only Tk 420 in a month on average. Considering daily income, it is only Tk 14 per day.

The locals said that the children cannot get out of the bidi processing trap once they are involved, and most of the children turn into tobacco users. Children also suffer from malnutrition as they work in the unhealthy environments for years, use tobacco and do not get balanced meals. They face different diseases from the very beginning of their lives. Discussion with child workers unveils suffering from frequent fevers and coughs are very common among them. They also suffer from headaches, abdominal problems, diarrhea, muscle pain etc. Besides, chronic bronchitis and asthma affected children are turning into the worst sufferers for the unhealthy environment inside the bidi factories. A medical officer of Haragaach Government Hospital has acknowledged the issue and said that half of the patients who come to the medical centre suffer from cold, coughs, fever and malnutrition. The medical officer also said that most of the asthma patients work in the bidi factories, and 80% of the patients are females, while 10% are children and the remaining 10% are adult males. The guardians of the children said that they use the local pharmacies to get medication for their children in such cases and it costs around Tk 30 – 40 in a month. Since they lack financial solvency, they cannot even afford this meager amount, which is a burden for them.

The earning scenario of child labour households is horrific, as selling their labour is their source of income and most of the households do not have any cultivable land, livestock or even a small piece of homestead land. The majority of the household members are engaged in the bidi industry, and some of them are engaged as agriculture labourers, transport workers or petty traders. The households where child labourers for bidi factories live earn around Tk 3000 on average. Meeting the costs of a household for a month with this scanty amount is quite impossible. Following the household income and expenditure survey (HIES 2010), a landless household earned Tk 11479 on average in 2010, which was Tk 7203, 5842 and 4366 in the years 2005, 2000 and 1995/96 respectively. So, it is found that a landless household earned Tk 4366 around one and half decades ago, and the average income of bidi labourers is lower than that now.

During the past few years, the wage of all types of day labourers have increased significantly, but the wages of bidi labourers have not been increased and it might even reduce a bit in terms of real wages. Therefore, to cope with the income disparity, the households are deploying their children to work at bidi factories. Analysis of the daily wages of all labourers in Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey ‘Wage Rate of Working Poor in Bangladesh, 2009-10’ shows that the wages of the bidi and zarda workers is lower than the any other sector in the country. The current wages scenario of child labourers working in the bidi factories is more terrible as they get only Tk 35 on average. The inhumane face of scanty wages to children becomes clearer when the daily income distribution is calculated from the monthly average wage income. According to calculation, it is only Tk 14 a day. Is this enough for a child to meet his daily needs? Tobacco companies are exploiting them for their poverty and unawareness, and entrapping the innocent children.

Dollar is a boy of about 14. He is caught in the bidi industry’s deathtrap. The malnourished boy lives with 5 household members in a small room beside Gafur Bidi factory in Haragaach. He studied in the first grade and could not continue it, just like the other bidi factory child labourers. To support his family, he started working at Aziz Bidi Factory when he was only seven. At the factory, he is responsible for inserting bidi shells with tobacco, closing the shell tops and bidi packaging. He works from 8am to 4pm. Besides, he is also engaged in helping his mother and other family members at his house to prepare empty bidi shells. It is to be noted that the children who prepare shells are usually the younger ones aged from five to nine years old. Dollar said that once he was an associate of his father at the bidi factory and gradually turned into a bidi worker. But his father is no longer continuing work there. Most children in Haragaach start helping their household out through bidi processing. Consequently, they enter the unhealthy bidi factories. Dollar has been working at the bidi factory for seven years. He works thrice a week and prepares 6000 bidi shells a day. He earns Tk 143 for preparing 6000 sticks of bidi from the factory. His total share is Tk 103 and the remaining Tk 40 is for making bidi shells by his household members (sister, mother and brother). Thereby, he earns Tk 309 on average in a week and Tk 1236 in a month. Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES 2010) data shows that the monthly average (per capita) income of a person was Tk 2553 in 2010, Tk 1485 was in 2005 and Tk 1128 was in 2000 and Tk 830 in 1995 – 96. The current earning of Dollar is less than the average per capita income of 2005 and slightly higher than 2000.

Rough and pre-matured looking Dollar has skinny limbs. His face has no mildness. He frequently falls ill, suffers from fever, muscle pain and diarrhea. Coughs and colds are his regular companions. In such cases, he does not go to doctor but rather takes medications from the local drug stores. Even his family members are not worried about his sickness. They have become used to the situation. The truth is they need money more than anything to meet their hunger. Thus they barely have any time to look after him. The child is being used as an earning source for his family. His father alone cannot bear all the expenses, and they also do not own any croplands. His father said that the family is being maintained with the additional earnings of his son. Dollar has a plan to leave the bidi factory, if he gets a job elsewhere. He dreams to start working at another place someday to earn enough money to improve his family condition.

Dollar opines that there are around 14-15 thousand workers at Aziz bidi factory and around 7000- 8000 of them are children (2/3 thousand boys and 5/6 thousand girls). Since there is no application of the policies, a significant portion of the future cohort of the country is being destroyed by the death selling traps of the tobacco companies.

Mukta is a nine years old girl living in Saheb Para of Haragaach. Her father is a truck helper who earns Tk 2500 – 3000 monthly on average. The earning is barely enough to maintain the five-member household expenses. So Mukta is to make bidi with her older sister and mother. She started making bidi when she was seven years old and goes to the bidi factory every Saturday and Monday with her mother. She works from 8am to 11 am and locks around 5000 bidi shell tops. She gets Tk 7 per thousand. She is an assistant of her mother. Her mother receives an order of preparing 18,000 bidis a week and is to submit 9000 bidis on Wednesday and the remaining 9000 on Saturday. Her mother and sister make 18,000 bidi shells in four days and fills tobacco in the shells, locks the tops and packaging is done when Mukta goes into the factory with her mother. Her mother receives Tk 330 for the 18,000 bidi altogether and she gets Tk 70 for her participation. She earns Tk 280 on average in a month. Although she is in her second grade, Mukta is irregular at school. Moreover, she is becoming thin gradually and suffering from fever and coughs. At times she cannot attend school or the bidi factory for her sickness. When she was asked how she felt in this job, she remained tight lipped. Perhaps the question was irrelevant to her or she is too familiar with the question that it is unnecessary for her to answer it. Whatever the issue is, such children are never unchained.

Eight years old Rokhsana is a child labourer from Kalmatir para under Lalmonirhat district. She has been engaged in bidi shell preparation with her mother when she was five. Currently she works five or six days in a week. Her mother gets orders to prepare 10,000 bidi shells a week. Rokhsana prepares 4000, and the rest is done by her mother. They get Tk 8 only for preparing each 1000 bidi shells. Rokhsana earns Tk 32 a week on average and monthly Tk 128. Her mother is a non-card holder of bidi factory. She works on a sub-contract from the card-holder workers. It is the rule of the locality that the workers who do not have cards will prepare bidi shells sitting at their residences under sub-contracts arranged by the card-holder workers. Card holders get orders to prepare 10-18 thousand bidi a day. But this being impossible for them under the tight timeline, they employ non card-holders to make bidi shells. The card-holders supply the shell preparing materials and at a deadline collect the shells when done.

Rokhsana has learnt bidi shell making from her mother. She is now responsible for helping the household income with her skills. Despite being a student of class two, she cannot attend school for work. She even does not have enough time to spend for sports. Her childhood is passing this way for the past three years. Thousands of children of poverty-stricken households do not go to school. Rokhsana’s father is a day labourer. He does not have work round the year. He also does not have any croplands. His scanty income is inadequate to bear all the household expenses. So, he engaged his daughter in bidi making. Rokhsana’s mother, Sheuli Begum, said that most of the locals are engaged with bidi production. Sheuli added that particularly people who do not have any croplands or are not wealthy are integrated with the hazardous bidi factory.

Eleven years old Shuki attended school till her second grade. Now she is a regular worker of a bidi factory. She lives with her family at Beribandh (embankment) of Baniapara under Lalmonirhat district. Shuki wakes up at 5am to go to the bidi factory with her father and returns at 5pm. She is ordered to prepare 10,000 bidi a day and is paid Tk 240 altogether. She gets Tk 24 per thousand bidi preparation. She is to spend Tk 80 to prepare one thousand bidi shells by sub-contract, and she receives Tk 160 with her father which is their actual income. They work around 20 days a month on average, and earn around Tk 3200, of which Tk 800 belongs to her. She goes to the bidi factory five days a week and locks around 5000 tops of bidi shells. She receives Tk 8 per thousand. Her weekly average income is Tk 200, and Tk 800 monthly. It is to be noted that her income is more on average than any other children as she is privileged with five-day working opportunity and her skills to prepare bidi. She accompanied her parents during the interview. Her parents are indifferent to the unhealthy bidi factory environment and her absence at school. Rather, their shining faces expressed satisfaction for the additional income of their daughter. Once they were a solvent family. But they live on the Beribandh area after they lost their belongings by river erosion. They also do not have any land or livestock. It was difficult for her father to maintain the five-member family expenses alone. So, her father engaged her in the bidi factory. However, not only did she have to stop schooling, her health was also weakened after she got engaged in the bidi factory. In line with fever and coughs, she developed eyesight problems. But being poor, she could not consult a doctor. When asked about how long she will work in the bidi factory, her father replied that all the earnings of Shuki have been saved for her marriage in future. When Shuki was asked how she feels working in bidi factories, she remained silent as her parents were sitting next to her.

Many of the children of the locality are spending their childhood in the hazardous environment of bidi factories. The childhood that was supposed to be invested in sports and education, is being spent maintaining their families.

Case 5: Inside the Factory

The acute sharp stench filled in the air when we entered a bidi factory. Hundreds of tender hands were carefully working on the floor of a storehouse space and they even do not have time to look around for deadlines of finishing their respective tasks. The air, heavily polluted and filled with tobacco powder and dust, is flowing across the room and it appeared that life span was decreasing with each breath. In such a situation, teams have been made consisting of 2-5 members sitting in a circle with bidi making materials. Usually household members are used to form teams. Many children aged from six months to four years were found sleeping on the floor, amid extreme negligence. The children stay at the factories for long hours until their mothers complete their tasks. Tobacco dust enters their mouths and noses, which is a serious health threat for them, but nobody seems worried about the issue. However, the factory authority is also callous and has dismissed their responsibilities by putting a signboard on the main entrance that describes that entry of children under 14 is restricted in the factory. But they are paying no heed to the issue and believe that all their responsibilities to protect child rights are taken care of by the signboard.

The temperature is around 39oC, which is almost similar to a heat wave. Hot air is pouring in through the tinned (CI) roof inside the factory, and there is no ceiling or table fans inside. So, most of them are wearing undershirts and some are working on bare body to adjust to the weather and fill their daily quota. The children in the bidi factory were covered with tobacco dust, their eyes dimmed and small, dried faces, boney bodies and limbs, absence of childish activities prevailing among them. Poverty has made them waste their childhoods to provide for their households for a little longer.

Despite having lots of queries in mind, there was lack scope to ask the questions inside the bidi factory. We only observed and tried to realise the real condition of living of the children and their families with the meager income in exchange of labour. However, the authority of the bidi factory (one or two members who were present at the factory then) could not control the team of seven to eight members including two local journalists. The images attached herein were taken very trickily by the team.

We had to wait outside the entrance to talk to the bidi workers as we had no other options left. Interviews were taken with their permission sitting by roadside, or at their respective residences. In Lalmonirhat, a three-member team of bidi workers from a household, where the mother was the team leader, was asked that if only poverty lets people allow their children to work in bidi factories. She precisely replied that poverty is a fact, but the bidi factory owners also have some interest if child workers are engaged into their factories. The bidi company prefers thin fingers of the children as they could quickly and perfectly prepare the bidi shells and close the shell tops. Besides, children are available and less demanding than the adults. Turning emotional, she said that her son, aged 10, has been working for the past three years and her daughter, aged 8, for one and a half years at the bidi factory. Her daughter suffers from different diseases, particularly coughing. She also said the factory authority forbade them strongly from entering into a particular room, because most of the workers of the room are children. She was also asked about the schooling of the children, and how that was possible. The question revealed a new face of the factory authority. The factory owners became active to admit the children in schools at the beginning of a year, and allowed them leave from 9am to 12am for attending classes. But after some days, the rule becomes slack and day-long bidi preparation continues like the other days of the year. Only a few children regularly attend school, and this is a deadly tactic by the factory owner. All the children of the bidi factory are enrolled in school, but pass their time in the bidi factory by making thousands of bidis.

Child labour inside the bidi factory is really shocking. After visiting two factories in Haragaach and one in Khuniagaach under Lalmonirhat district, the six-member Tobacco Industry Watch BD team has come to an agreeable decision about the use of child labour in the bidi factories of the districts. After the team members’ opinion, over half of the bidi workers (60- 65%) are children aging from 4– 14. Observations, discussions with the bidi workers and analyzing the photos, the Tobacco Industry Watch BD team members have agreed about the ratio of child labour in the bidi factories. Since most of the children are malnourished, their actual age could not be known. But the Tobacco Industry Team evaluation is almost similar with the information gathered from the locals and secondary literatures on child labour. Whatever the statistics is, Tobacco Industry Watch BD wants the inhumane child labour on bidi factory to be stopped soon.

While a lot of words are said by concerned authorities, law enforcement, politicians and the administration in terms of the eradication of child labour and the presence of unhealthy work environments where children are forced to make ends meet, little is done in practice and as can be seen from this study, the exploitation of child labour in bidi factories, one of the most dangerous work environments for their health, goes on unabated. It is a sad truth that the right of children to the securities and safeties of childhood is a casualty in this country, when these are the people who should one day have been the upholders of the future of our nation.

The Weekend Independent is thankful for this research by the Tobacco Industry Watch BD team

Source:Weekend Independent,FRIDAY, 16 MAY 2014