Behind the trend is a global supply line that starts half a world away, in impoverished homes in rural India where underpaid women labor long hours to keep the goods flowing. Since the turn of the century, when Indians began smoking handmade cigarettes in large numbers, illiterate women have eked out an existence much as Suram does today. Nowadays, bidi-making employs about 5 million Indian women, making it second only to farming. It is often carried out under exploitative conditions, and the cigarettes may pose health risks for the rollers as well as the smokers. Bidi manufacturers say they are performing a national service by providing work for the women.
Labor activists accuse manufacturers of keeping wages low and turning a blind eye to exploitation.
Since most rollers work at home, it is tough to enforce worker-protection laws or prevent child labor. Though there is no proof that rolling causes respiratory diseases, the incidence of tuberculosis and bronchial asthma among bidi rollers is higher than that among the general population, according to research by the Factory Advisory Services and Labor Institute in Bombay, a unit of the Labor Ministry. Suram and her colleagues in this western Indian town complain of back strain and neckaches, and they cough from the dust they inhale. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bidis are more harmful than regular cigarettes because they contain at least three times more tar and nicotine. Some U.S. lawmakers are concerned that bidis are being sold illegally to minors.