Speakers at a roundtable said that more than 125 bidi factories were shut down in the country during the last 12 years, throwing about 2.5 million Bidi workers jobless.
At least 20 to 25 lakh people are engaged in the Bidi factories. If these factories are closed, a large number of people engaged in the sector, will be unemployed, they said.
They made the remarks at a roundtable on ‘National Budget to protect Bidi workers and life struggle of Bidi workers,’ organised by the Research and Development Collective at the CIRDAP auditorium in the city, with Professor Munir I Khan, chairman of Social Science Department of Dhaka University in the chair.
“The NBR has made a discriminatory tax policy to protect the multinational companies. This policy will ultimately destroy the Bidi industries,” Fazle Hossain Badsha, MP, General Secretary of Bangladesh Workers Party said at the function. Speakers at the function raised the demand for imposition of increased duties on cigarette to save the country’s Bidi industries.
Kazi Rozi, MP, former chairman of NBR Dr Mohammad Abdul Majid, Professor Mejbah Kamal, president of Bangladesh Labour Federation Shah Md Abu Jafar, general secretary of Jatiya Sramik Federation Safiuddin Ahmed, public health expert Dr Muhammad Sabur, general secretary of Bidi Sramik Federation MK Bangali and joint general secretary Abdur Rahman participated in the discussion.
