Visual Artist and Documentary Photographer Masood Sarwer is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘Burning Both Ends’. To see Masood’s body of work, click on any image.

Minara, 23, has started to roll beedi within weeks of delivery of her 2nd child in Murshidabad, India. “Rolling beedi with infants in our lap is very common here” – says Minara. The sad part is that even they know that this will harm their child, they have no choice but to continue. They reported that their babies fall sick often, with vomiting, diarrheas and fever.

At the time of holding a pencil, their fingers hold beedi in Murshidabad, India. She cuts tendu leaves into small rectangular pieces and puts tobacco flakes inside tendu leaves and rolls it down with a yarn tied over it, securing it tightly and tucks its one end with a small iron rod to make one beedi. She rolls 1000 sticks of beedi, rocking back and forth for 12–14 hours a day to earn a partial sum of less than 2 dollars.

“For the past three hours my wife is going through pain in her chest”, but there are no doctors here in the hospital, says Ajlema Bibi’s husband, at Tarapur Hospital. Ajlema Bibi, 28, is an active beedi roller, she has developed respiratory problems due to rolling beedi from an early age. They have been waiting for hours along with other patients for doctors to come.
Tarapur Hospital is the only hospital in Murshidabad district which gives free treatment to beedi workers but one needs beedi cards to avail of these facilities but in reality, most cards are issued to non-beedi workers through bribes and favoritism, resulting in genuine beedi workers being deprived of their benefits & facilities.

Children of beedi workers attend evening tuition classes which are conducted by NGO – Marfat, who has tied with Rotary India Literacy Mission to give free tuition to primary students, who are lagging in their studies in Murshidabad, India.
Most of the students are beedi rollers or come from the beedi family. Most of the beedi workers admit their children to school, but a majority of girls are pulled out of education by the time they complete primary school to support their family’s income.

Murshidabad is situated on the eastern banks of the Ganges river and shares a 150 km-long porous border with Bangladesh which is notoriously crime-prone for smuggling, human trafficking & prostitution.

Once it was an important center of the silk trade but presently, it is India’s largest center for rolling beedi where almost all young girls roll beedi (hand-rolled cigarette) from their homes, involving a violation of fundamental rights & freedoms.

Due to the changing course of the Ganges, there is a constant loss of agricultural land causing severe erosion to over two million people. One of the major reasons why the beedi industry flourished decades ago.

It has a population of over 7 million where 75% depends on beedi. About 90% workforce constitutes of women & girls who roll beedies from the premises of their homes from an age of 5. Girls go on to roll 1000 sticks of beedi, rocking back & forth for 12–14 hours a day to earn a partial sum of less than 2 dollars. According to NFHS-4 (2015-16),

the Murshidabad district records the highest number of child marriages in India with 39.9%. “Demand in the matrimonial market depends on the speed & accuracy of rolling and education has no place”.

Girls absorb high doses of nicotine through their fingertips & end up inhaling tobacco dust which causes tuberculosis, asthma, anemia, eye infections, gynecological & respiratory problems. Back pain & spondylitis is common due to sitting several hours at a stretch in the same position. They can’t afford treatment in private hospitals & hide their diseases due to slander in the society & continues to roll which makes even worse.

When newborn babies are exposed to tobacco their eyes burn in pain and effects their overall growth.

Currently, India is the second-largest tobacco consumer & third-largest tobacco producer in the world. Out of 20 million beedi workers in India, 80% are females. Each year around 600,000 people’s deaths are tied to beedies. Beedi/pan sectors employ most of India’s 12.66 million child workers. Of India’s total tobacco consumption, 53% is in the form of beedies.

I find the rapid rise of beedi culture disturbing & that’s what drives much of my research & photography.