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Kerala's beedi goes up in smoke
Published on Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 13:12, Updated on Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 18:10 in 
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Kannur (Kerala): The beedi used to be the favourite of many in Kerala once. But now Dinesh Beedi, the country's largest beedi making co-operative society, is all set to wind up.
At the receiving end of this move are thousands of workers in the CPI-M stronghold Kannur.
“For the workers in Dinesh Beedi, it's the main income that's affected. So it becomes difficult for them to survive. While for many others, it's the additional income,” says Chairman of Kerala Dinesh Beedi Workers Co-operative Society, C V Kunhiraman.
With stiff competition from cigarette giants, there is need to diversify. An umbrella manufacturing section and a wing for Dinesh foods has been set up with hopes of re-habilitating the workers.
But for the nimble fingers used to handling tobbaco for 25 years, managing umbrellas, spices, juices and jam are alien territory.
“I don't think even a job diversification will help. You cannot rehabilitate 40,000 workers so easily to other jobs. We are all old people and you cannot expect us to start working on a new project and learn it fast. Beedi has been our livelihood,” says a worker Narayanan, worker:
The state government has stepped in with Rs 4 crore for diversification.
As the beedi industry dies a silent death, also dying are such old centres of communist mobilisation.
Over the years, Dinesh Beedi as a co-operative society had reflected the organisational capabilities of the CPI-M.
Its extinction today is perhaps an indication of the party's alienation from the working class.
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