COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Kerala court ban on cigarettes ignites industry anger

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The Rs 12 billion tobacco industry is up in arms against the anti-smoking drive launched by the police in the wake of the Kerala High Court ban on smoking in public places.

The beedi (leaf-rolled raw cigarette) workers and petty shop owners affected by the ban have already hit the street as the sales have plummeted in urban areas since the implementation of the ban from July 12.

While the major beedi manufacturers are planning to move the Supreme Court against the ban, the beedi workers and shop-owners are preparing for a state-wide agitation. Various beedi and tobacco workers' unions affiliated to the Centre for Indian Trade Unions are scheduled to meet at Kannur in north Kerala on July 31 to chalk out a plan for the proposed statewide agitation.

The Kerala Dinesh Beedi and the Sadhoo Beedi, two leading beedi manufacturing industries, are in touch with legal experts to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court directive.

Chief Minister E K Naynar has already hinted government's support to the move. He said that it would not be possible for the government to rehabilitate the beedi workers, who are likely to be rendered unemployed by the ban.

The tobacco industry in the state provides direct employment to over 100,000 people. The number of retail traders, including cigarette vendors depending on tobacco for livelihood is estimated to be over 150,000. The total income generation to small traders from tobacco sales is to the tune of Rs 900 million to Rs.950 million a day, according to the Kerala Cigarette and Tobacco Dealers Association.

The bulk of the beedi workers in the state are concentrated in the cooperative sector. The Kerala Dinesh Beedi, which is the major cooperative venture, has 22 primary societies and as many as 301 worksheds employing 45,000 persons.

The Tobacco Dealers' Association said that the ban bringing all open places within its ambit has hurt the industry the most. The definition of "public places" includes hospitals, restaurants, bars, shops, industrial establishments, cinema houses, parks, bus stops, bus stations, railway stations, trains, buses and other public vehicles, highways, stadiums and other places where people gather.

The police are forced to apprehend as many people as possible as they are supposed to file a report before the High Court a month after the implementing the ban. The actual number of smokers held by the police throughout the state is not available. However, the unofficial estimates put the number of those caught by the police in the past one week at more than 4,000.

The smokers have learnt to resist the temptation for a puff on the street as the police action against smoking in public places has given it the complexion of a criminal offence. A smoker caught by the police would have to face an imprisonment of one month or pay a fine up to Rs 500 or both as cases are filed on the basis of Section 290 of the Indian Penal Code, which relates to public nuisance.

The police chase against the smokers has hit the petty shopowners who survive mainly on sales of these products. The sales of beedi and cigarettes have recorded a 30 to 50 per cent fall in urban areas since the imposition of the ban, according to trade sources.

Sadasivan Nair, a shop-owner at Thiruvananthapuram said that the sales of cigars and beedis in his shop had drastically come down following the anti-smoking drive. He said that his turnover had plummeted from Rs 6,000 a day prior to the ban to Rs 2,000 at present.

He said most of his customers were employees and workers who puffed a smoke after a tea or soft drink. After the ban, such customers have vanished.

Shiv Kumar, a beedi distributor in the city said that the sharp drop in sales had eroded his income. "It was our breadwinner and we will be driven to starvation if the ban continues," he added.

The ban has come at a time when the beedi industry was struggling hard for survival due to steep competition from small-size cigarettes and the anti-tobacco agitation.

Barring a small minority, the ban has been welcomed widely. Even many of the smokers have praised the court order which they hoped, would help them wriggle out of the grip of nicotine.

Women have found the ban most relieving. Subha Unnikrishnan, a lecturer in a private college at Thiruvananthapuram, hoped the move would help end the practice of smoking in trains and buses.

She said that the court order would help the society to recognise that passive smoking was a serious health hazard.

The ban on smoking was imposed by a division bench of the high court on a public interest litigation filed by Monamma Kokkad of the Bishop Choolapparambil College in Kottayam and Amruthayil Ramaksrishnan of Ramanattukara Vaidyanangadi in Kozhikode.

Business news

Kerala