Analysis of Socio Economic Issues of Women Employee's of Indian Tobacco Industries with reference to Tamilnadu, India.

India is the third largest tobacco producer in the world. The main growing states are Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. More importantly, the bulk (80 per cent) of the tobacco grown there is of the non-cigarette type. It is used to meet domestic demands as bidis, in hookahs, chewing tobacco and snuff. Apart from earning revenue for the state, the tobacco industry generates substantial employment. Around 1.2 million workers are involved in cultivating, curing and processing tobacco, and another 5, 00, 000 workers are occupied in the trade and distribution of different types of tobacco. Estimates of the total number of bidi workers are as high as 5 million approximately. Additionally, many are engaged in collecting tendu leaf. Bidi rolling is one of the major unorganized sector activities in India, which employs large number of women. The Government of India estimates that there are about 4.4 million workers in this industry. Of these, the majority are home-based women workers who live under the poverty line. Thus, there is a need to improve the living and working conditions, about the tendu leaf growers and the workers in unorganized sector. Also helps to understand the problems faced by the women bidi workers in the industry. As well as to promote decent employment and income opportunities for women bidi workers.

The women bidi workers collectively earn an enviable few thousand crore turnover for the business owners, but yet, individual live in extreme poverty and ill health. As home based workers, they are often short changed by the arbitrary rejection of finished bidis on the grounds of poor quality, also, sometimes due to contractors providing them with low grade raw materials to begin with. Therefore it has become a dire necessity for responsible citizens to investigate the causes for this untold misery and come out with meaningful, effective suggestions to mitigate their sufferings