Building a Wider
Horizon With Labour
When the pain and stiffness in her lower back became unbearable, Tanuja went to see a homoeopath. “He told me I had a calcium and iron problem [deficiency] and I should never sit on the floor.” A beedi worker in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, she sits for up to eight hours on the floor rolling out beedis . “I feel feverish and weak, and have so much pain in my back,” says this worker in her late 40s. “If only I could afford to buy a chair and a table for myself,” she adds. It’s the end of November and a warm light is falling on the hard cement floor in her home in Hareknagar mohalla . Tanuja is seated on a palm leaf madur (mat) rolling out one beedi after another. Her fingers move deftly as she twists the kendu leaf, elbows locked in position to maintain momentum, shoulders elevated and head dropping to one side. “My fingers are so numb that I wonder if I have them at all,” she says half in jest.
