ABSTRACT
287This chapter looks at how the organization of labor within the home-based beedi industry in the Tirunelveli district of South Tamil Nadu has continued to perpetuate itself even as it deals with changes in the labor market for women workers (Gopal 2011). 1 Beedis are cheroots made of tendu leaves rolled with tobacco dust, which women produce by hand within their homes through a putting-out system. The women who collect the raw materials and deliver the finished beedis to subcontractors who set up units in the villages form about 90 percent of the workforce in the industry in Tamil Nadu. It takes a woman about eight hours to roll a thousand beedis, but since they combine this work with domestic and reproductive tasks within their homes, this beedi work spills into their other work within the household and draws upon the contributions of other members of the household, including children. Beedis account for about 50 percent of the tobacco consumption in India and are popular with the working classes in both rural and urban areas. In south Tamil Nadu, the beedi industry is about a century old and co-exists with agricultural labor and other non-farm activities.
