Dusk descends on the beedi rollers of Murshidabad Premium

The women of West Bengal’s beedi-making hotspot are part of an industry in decline: low wages, irregular work, and ill health as a result of their job, puts their livelihood at risk. Future work opportunities seem bleak, but they roll on

As dusk descends on Madna village, Bulan Bibi walks slowly down the road towards what can at best be described as a shack — a platform with a tarpaulin cover. Under it sits a teenage boy with a pile of beedis (hand-rolled cigarettes) stacked symmetrically in a bamboo basket. Ms. Bulan reaches the counter, opens a small basket she had covered with the edge of her cotton saree, and hands over bundles of beedis to the teenager.

He counts them and says, “603”, matter-of-factly making an entry in a small diary. She asks when the next instalment of money will be credited. The boy makes a reference to the munshi (contractor) who owns the ‘shop’ and will make the payment: ₹178 for 1,000 beedis. That’s one of the lowest wages in the country for beedi rolling. As costs for the beedi industry escalate, tobacco gets more and more tainted, and work gets irregular, the women don’t have another skill to fall back on.

There’s nothing to draw people to Madna, in West Bengal’s Sadikpur gram panchayat, Murshidabad district. The village resembles an urban slum, its unpainted brick-and-cement structures almost getting in each others’ way. Located only a few kilometres from Chandermore on National Highway 12, its greenery is fast disappearing to half-built habitations. The region along the Ganga has been prone to erosion for several years now, leaving no land for agriculture.

The men have migrated to other States to work as construction labourers. It’s hard to find a man between 15 and 50 years on the streets. Only those who have local businesses or shops have remained. As have the women, staying rooted with the family in their home village, much like the steady leg of a pair of compasses.

Beedi rolling has been the primary source of income for women over several decades now, in almost every village in Murshidabad, even parts of Malda, across the river.

Ms. Bulan stops to chat with Aslenur Bibi at her newly built house. “She can roll beedis very fast, 1,000 a day,” Ms. Bulan says of her friend. Even when Ms. Aslenur talks about her husband, a migrant worker in Gujarat, her nimble fingers do not stop, putting tobacco on a kendu leaf, rolling it, then using red and black thread to bind it.

Saraswati Roy, from the same village, jokes that women who roll more beedis get better marriage proposals in the region. “But, I cannot roll like her (Aslenur). At best I can roll 500 sticks a day,” Ms. Roy, who has a 26-year-old daughter, says. This means she earns less than ₹100 a day.