Published Paper Details:

Women in Murshidabad district of West Bengal have contributed to the beedi sector right from its inception till date and also for the continuous improvement of the sector. The working hours are very high, and they spend 14-16 hours a day earning income to support their families. The wages they receive is less than the wages set by the minimum wages act. The women were less aware on the claims against health insurance, loan allowance provident fund which adds benefit to the bidi sector. The women being home based workers do not claim for better working conditions. There is no considerable investment made by the beedi industry on such labour force. The women supply a continuous and stable work force to industry. The work is learnt by every member of the family and thus continues without interruption. Since beedi employs large numbers of women workers, it adopts exploitative practices which affect women workers in general. The home workers are exploited more since they have no operative trade union forum as in the organized sector. This paper intends to explain the limited and confined lifeworlds of the women beedi workers of Murshidabad district of West Bengal. Though they are involved in beedi making sector with minimal wages for generations, there is no shift of occupational structure. Most of the beedi rollers are having low socio-economic status and living in poor housing condition. Due to exposure to the tobacco there is hazardous health condition of the women beedi workers particularly the women and young girl children. Besides, this paper also employed non participatory observation to bring out the ground reality of their everyday social lives. This paper further has tried to throw light on the women beedi workers of Murshidabad district of West Bengal and how they are being exploited and how they are in perpetual poverty due to their lack of education, unemployment and under-employment, less mobility and socio-religious practices.