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Bihar is inhuman to bidi workers

Over 100,000 bidi (a country cigarette) workers die of tuberculosis, cancer and brain tumour every year in Bihar, says a National Bidi Workers Organisation of India survey.

In the report, NBWOI general secretary Feroze Nomani alleged that proprietors mete out inhuman treatment to workers in the state. They cared little for the health and safety of workers, though safeguards like the Bidi and Cigar Act has been in vogue since 1966.

People from the weaker sections of the society were mainly engaged in the bidi industry, and the labour department was indifferent to the their exploitation, the survey said.

Nomani said the workers were denied even minimum wages and dearness allowances effective from 1955. At least 12 per cent of their income was deducted under various heads since May 1990, but no proof of it was given to them.

Though the Union labour ministry ran 15 mobile hospitals in the state, the bidi workers hardly benefited from the facility, Somani said.

Nomani said he had approached the chief minister, the labour minister and the leader of opposition in the assembly to seek a remedy, but without success.

UNI

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