Mysuru Beedi Mazdoor Association seeks PM Modi's intervention to solve problem of beedi workers

Mysuru: Mysuru Beedi Mazdoor Association has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to solve the long-pending problems of beedi workers.

Association president and MLA Tanveer Sait and general secretary K C Showkath Pasha have written a letter to the PM’s office on Monday, October 13, 2025, on the refusal of the Beedi Hospitals to register the workers, since the past five years.

The letter states that beedi is a cottage and a home-based industry, that employs crores of workers, at least 90% of them women. “Recognising the importance of this workforce, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment established the Labour Welfare Organisation and Welfare Commissioner offices in various states, including Karnataka.

"Through these agencies, welfare measures such as educational scholarship, medical aid, hospitals and housing were provided. However, access to these benefits depend on the identity cards issued by manufacturers or registered contractors, and endorsed by the designated beedi hospital,” the letter states.

“Mysuru got the Central Hospital for Beedi Workers in 1990. However, the hospital has stopped registering new beedi workers, citing the restrictions laid out by the Bengaluru-based Welfare Commissioner. They point at the Union government’s procedures and the repealing of the Beedi Workers Act in 2019, for the enrollment of beedi workers. The denial to register is resulting in denial of medical care and other benefits to thousands of beedi workers of the Mysuru region - in Chamarajanagar, Mandya, Hassan and other districts,” the letter states.

Pasha said, there are over 10,000 registered beedi workers under the jurisdiction of the Central Hospital for Beedi Workers in Mysuru, while another 1,500 new beedi workers are awaiting registration. “The hospital gets 200 patients daily, on an average. Earlier also, several representations have been made to the Welfare Commissioner in Bengaluru. Thus, the Prime Minister should consider the welfare of the labourers and facilitate provision of the benefits,” he said