“Poverty spells hardships for the poor people, but for the rich and powerful, poverty means cheap labour and increasing profits, so it is not surprising if the Orissa government itself wants to fill its treasury by exploiting the labour of poor Kendu leaf binders…” mutters Angad Mungri, a young Adivasi from Dongrapalli village, Bargarh district, western Orissa, who finds himself deeply trapped in the vicious cycle of indebtedness, and is forced to work in extremely exploitative conditions of Kendu leaf processing and binding operations.

In April 2006, Angad took a loan of Rs 1,000 from a fellow villager to meet the subsistence needs of his family because the yield from his small agricultural land did not last for more than four months. The fellow villager also happened to be a ‘Mate’ (labour contractor) assigned by the Ranger of the Forest Department. His job was to arrange labourers for binding Kendu leaves in the nearby phadi. He invited Angad to join the binding operations along with his family and assured him that he would easily earn up to Rs 100 per day with free ration, housing and education for his two adolescent sons.

The offer was too good to resist, and Angad with 20 other villagers shifted to the Kendu leaves collection centre in June 2006. Within a few weeks of work, they realised that the promises made to them were false. Far from getting free rations and education, they were not even paid their prescribed wages. Some of them tried to discontinue work but all of them were bound by the loan or advance they had taken and could not quit because the Forest Department officials withheld their wages. They were forced to work along with their families in extremely exploitative conditions under the burden of indebtedness. But what makes their plight even more serious is the fact that their creditor and employer is none other than the Forest Department of the Orissa government.

Kendu/Tendu leaves belong to the species Diospyros melanoxylon; shrubs are found usually in open/degraded forests and wastelands. These are used as wrappers for bidis, the country cigarettes of the poor. Kendu leaves undoubtedly form the core of alternative livelihood support especially for millions of poor Adivasi and Dalit communities in rural Orissa. According to official estimates, more than 18 lakh poor people are dependant on Kendu leaf operations (bush-cutting, plucking, grading, binding, etc.) for 10–40 per cent of their annual income. The importance of Kendu leaves in the lives of poor communities is highlighted by the fact that it generates more than 150 million man-days of employment during the lean agricultural season, including the labour involved in making bidis.

Orissa is the second largest Kendu leaf-producing state only after Madhya Pradesh. It produces more than 13 per cent share of the total Kendu leaves produced in the country. Kendu leaf operations are mostly carried out in 23 districts of the state with Bolangir, Angul, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Koraput, Kandhamal, Keojhar and Mayurbhanj being the major contributors.

Kendu leaf is popularly called ‘Green Gold’ among the political and administrative circles because it brings maximum revenue for Orissa. These leaves are surely the most valuable non-timber forest produce with respect to the revenue earnings for the state government as it accounts for more than 74 per cent of total revenue from the forest. The revenue interest of the state can be judged by the fact that during the period 1989–2001, the state government earned a revenue of Rs 7.52 billion from Kendu leaves. The total wages earned by Kendu leaf workers during the same period was only Rs 3.87 billion. The high incidence of royalties on Kendu leaf needs to be contrasted with the royalties collected on a major mineral, where labour is organised. For example, royalties are Rs 30 per tonne on bauxite, but a whopping Rs 12,000 per tonne on Kendu leaves! (Working Paper 223, N.C Saxena ODI) These leaves have also been an important source of foreign exchange for the Orissa government. Of the total production, 6–7 per cent of processed leaves are exported to other countries, with Sri Lanka and Pakistan being the major importers from Orissa. (Of the total Kendu leaf exported from India to foreign countries, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had a share of 65.61 and 33.82 per cent, respectively, in the year 1994–1995. India has a monopoly in the export of Kendu leaves to 15 countries including the UK and the USA. In 1994–1995, the total value of this export was more than 20 crores and the quantity was more than 4,652 tonnes.)

Kendu leaves of Orissa are far more superior in quality than the leaves of other states. This is a result of the value addition done through processing, grading, binding and packaging at the collection centres. On an average, more than 2 lakh families get seasonal employment in more than 6,000 collection centres across the state for around six months every year.  Usually in the month of March or April, the Forest Range Office in every Kendu leaf division provides a lump sum advance of Rs 10,000–20,000 to the assigned ‘Mates’ (labour contractors) for bringing a sufficient number of workers for processing and binding operations. Subsequently, these ‘Mates’ start identifying families who are in need of money and distribute the money received by the Forest Department as advance for reserving their labour for binding operations. In the beginning of June, when the collection of Kendu leaves is over, these labourers along with their families are taken by the ‘Mate’ to the collection centres. These centres are mostly thatched huts or merely tarpaulin shades, with no potable drinking water and electricity.

The process starts with drying the leaves for 10 to 15 days. The leaves suitable for bidi rolling are then selected and bound in packs, called ‘Beeda’, weighing 5 kg each. The initial work of the labourers includes the timely watering of Kendu bundles, turning the bundles periodically and letting them dry to a certain extent, and finally selecting and grading the leaves. The labourers work in khuntis (khunti is 1 man + 1 woman). For each of the leaf bundles dried and bound, the labourer’s family gets Rs 11; one family can prepare up to four to six bundles per day. The ‘Mate’ gets Rs 11 as commission for every 12 bundles of Kendu leaves prepared by the labourers. There is no limit on the working hours as the payment is made on a piece rate basis. Normally, a family can prepare up to 6–7 bundles working for 10–12 hours; the combined daily income is approximately Rs 60–80. 

The Munshi along with the ‘Mate’ maintains a register of the binders, and deducts the advance from their earnings. The wages are not paid to them during the whole process and are withheld for up to 4–6 months. Instead, every family is provided with a subsistence allowance (kharchi) of Rs 100 once a week to meet their basic needs. As the workers are indebted and their wages are withheld, they have no other option but to work in difficult conditions. In case any worker discontinues work, the matter is first taken up in the community panchayats, where he is pressurised through social or economic boycott. But if the community fails to ensure his return, the forest guard or police intervenes to sort out the matter.

During the binding operations, women labourers are exploited the most. Their names do not figure in the register and they do not even have a right over their own wages. There are several instances where women are sexually exploited and harassed by the contractors and forest officials. The children of the binders are actively involved especially in drying and carrying Kendu leaves. They are deprived of the right to education because there are no schools available near the collection centres. Since the families of labourers have to live in unhygienic conditions, diseases, such as malaria and dysentery, are very common. They have no access to public health facilities and are left to the mercy of their own exploiters.

Since the process of Kendu leaf processing and binding needs extensive and regular labour inputs to sort, process and bind the leaves manually, the Forest Department finds it appropriate to enslave the labourers by keeping them indebted and withholding their wages. According to a forest official, “the Forest Department is forced to distribute the advance before binding, because the nature of work is such that if the labourers leave the work incomplete, the department would have to suffer huge losses.” But in reality, this practice has only exploited the labour class by increasing their vulnerability and pushing them into bondage. Moreover, the Orissa government has profited immensely by Kendu leaf-processing operations by denying the workers their wages and exploiting the labour of the poor. Looking at the huge benefits made by the state from Kendu leaf trade, there is no doubt that food security and the livelihood of the labourers can be ensured if the profits are shared equitably with the poor communities. But the government’s intention is only to maximise their own profits even if it is earned by denying the labourers their basic rights and keeping them under ‘state-sponsored bondage’. When the protectors themselves turn into exploiters, there is nothing that Angad Mungri and several others like him can do but to submit to their fate and bonded existence.