ON June 23, 2021, over 50,000 women beedi workers led by the CITU-affiliated Lal Bavta Beedi Kamgar Union laid siege to the Solapur district collectorate in Maharashtra.  It was one of the most massive protests in Solapur in the last several years. The women workers had gathered in such strength, with thousands of red flags, despite the Covid pandemic, for a very valid reason.

A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court alleging without any credible proof that tobacco increases the risk of Covid, and demanding a temporary ban on the sale of tobacco in any form. The first hearing on this PIL took place on April 22 and several subsequent hearings have been held. If the PIL is upheld, over four lakh women beedi workers in Maharashtra will be rendered unemployed and destitute at one stroke. That would be a huge disaster. The High Court has ordered the state government to file an affidavit in this case.

As soon as this matter came to the notice of the CITU leadership, it approached several ministers and officials of the state government to intervene effectively by filing a suitable affidavit, in order to save the livelihood of the women beedi workers. When no positive response was forthcoming, it was decided to organise this massive protest action on June 23.

The June 23 action in Solapur was unprecedented. Women beedi workers from the city and its environs came in huge numbers despite the scorching sun. Instead of dying of corona, it is better to die fighting while defending our employment and rights, was their common refrain. They occupied a full one kilometre stretch of the main road near the district collector’s office. The poor working women hailed from all religions and castes and spoke different languages. The prospect of their work and wages being snatched away from them galvanised them into action. Of course, CITU activists led an intensive campaign in every area of the city. 

The massive public meeting was addressed by CPI(M) state secretary and CITU state vice president Narasayya Adam, CPI(M) state secretariat member and CITU state general secretary M H Shaikh, and others. If this issue was not settled satisfactorily, they warned that one lakh women beedi workers along with their families will conduct an indefinite sit-in struggle outside the Solapur district collectorate in the coming days.

The police arrested around 70 main activists and slapped cases on 26 of them. Apart from CITU leaders, some of them also belonged to various mass organisations like AIKS, AIDWA and DYFI, all of whom also helped in the mobilisation for this crucial struggle. 

This huge mass action forced the mainstream electronic and print media to cover it widely.                  

Earlier, during the Covid second wave lockdown, the state government had sanctioned a one-time amount of Rs 1,500 for construction workers, domestic workers, autorickshaw drivers and hawkers. However, nothing at all was announced for other sections of marginalised unorganised workers like beedi, powerloom, handloom workers and others. This issue was also taken up in Solapur and other centres by the CITU through large and consistent demonstrations.