An estimated 1.7 million children are involved in India’s beedi making industry despite it being classified as hazardous labour.
Beedi is a traditional hand-rolled, unfiltered cigarette hugely popular in India and its market worth billions of dollars.
The production is almost entirely home-based, with women and girls in impoverished districts making up the majority workforce.
The work conditions of beedi rollers are appalling and wages exploitative as poverty keeps them trapped in the cycle of economic slavery.
In Kadiri, Andhra Pradesh, mothers and girls work anything up to 14 hours daily to earn their survival.
Beedi rollers work like robots in assembly line; each must roll at least 1000 beedis a day to earn less than 2 US dollars paid by the middleman.
Girls as young as 5 get pulled into the trade to support their poor families; the majority drop out of school by the time they are 12.
Children are knowingly engaged for their nimble hands to increase efficiency and output.
Beedi workers sit in one position for hours; they often skip their meals and even avoid going to toilet to keep up with their target.
All workers, including young girls, handle tobacco with bare hands and use sharp knives to close the tips of beedis.
Adults, children and new-borns alike are exposed to harmful tobacco dust; TB, asthma, postural problems and anaemia are common.
Children absorb large amounts of nicotine through their bare hands’ skin; many lose sensation in their hands by the time they reach their 40s.
