No space to brand beedis

Increasing the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products from 40% to 85% would hamper the branding of beedi packaging and impact millions of beedi workers said BJP MP from Ahmednagar Dilip Kumar Gandhi while speaking to dna on Tuesday. The MP had earlier on Monday stoked a controversy when he said that there is no Indian survey linking cancer to tobacco consumption. Gandhi is the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on subordinate legislations and recently submitted a report to the ministry of health and family welfare (MOHFW) on the issue of increasing pictorial warning size for all tobacco products. The report asked MOHFW to hold the decision to increase pictorial warning size till more local studies are examined on tobacco and its links to cancer.

"Unlike cigarettes, beedis are packaged manually and an increase in size of pictorial warnings would leave no space for branding of the product. We have got representations to this effect. This (increase in warning size) would also have a collateral impact on poor beedi workers," said Gandhi. The parliamentary committee had four meetings and received several representations, majorly from the likes of All India Beedi Industry Federation and Federation of Karnataka Virginia Tobacco Growers Association. But when asked if the committee went through any medical literature to study harmful health effects of tobacco, Gandhi said, "We would soon meet the government officials and experts."

Gandhi's concerns about beedi workers though seem to be driven by the hard pitch by beedi manufacturers' lobby to drop the notification. The report states that during November last year, BJP MP from Allahabad Shyama Charan Gupta wrote a letter to the committee saying, "there is no medical evidence that bidis cause cancer" and 40% pictorial warning is sufficiently large and clear. His letter added that thus the "notification should be withdraw."

Shyama Charan Gupta also happens to be the baron of Shyam Group that produces Shyam Bidi. The company manufactures 1,100 crores of beedi sticks per annum and employs 30,000 people.

The MOHFW though clearly states that the increase in size would not affect the branding of beedis. In the parliamentary committee report, MOHFW says, "The pack size (of tobacco products) can be modified to accommodate the minimum size of the specified warning. The ministry had even prepared dummy packs of beedis to test the efficacy of large warnings. Gandhi though maintained that the committee would like to have more time to study the impact of the notification. "The beedi industry employs lakhs of people and we want to also look at the socio-economic impact of this decision on them if beedi industry goes into losses."