| The tendu tree (Diospyros melanoxylon)
is found widely across central India. Leaves plucked from
its shrubs are used to wrap bidis. About 550 billion pieces
of bidi are sold every year in India. It was in the 1960s
that governments realised the commercial value of tendu. Tendu
leaves were sold unplucked to the contractors, who under reported
the collections. Several states passed laws to nationalize
the tendu trade in the 1960s and 1970s.The most crucial in
this was Madhya Pradesh,, which produces 25 percent of the
country's total harvest of tendu.
When MP government nationalized the tendu
trade, the state was carvedup into1,826 collection units.
Collection agents were appointed for each unit, responsible
for getting the leaves plucked and delivered to the buyer.
The agents and buyers had the same business interests and
they misrepresented the collection and sale figures to cheat
the government of royalty. This changed in 1980, when the
state government started charging lump sums on rates based
on 15year averages. Government revenues increased, but the
collectors were still under paid. In 1984 the MP MFP (Trading
& Development) Cooperative Federation Limited was formed.
The forest department was entrusted with the collection. The
first two years saw the tribals' earnings rise.
The system worked well for the first two years.
The MFP Federation became a cash rich organization. Then populism
took over. The wages paid to collectors began to be hiked
before the elections. Although care was taken to appoint officers
with good reputation to the MFP federation, corruption in
the forest department ensured that the federation started
loosing money. In 1988 a three tire cooperative structure
for tendu trade was established to promote the people to take
over the trade. In 1998, an executive order was passed in
MP to implement the provisions of Panchayats (Extension to
schedule areas) Act, 1996 (PESA). Under this the net profit
of the tendu trade was to be returned as bonus to the collectors,
the owners of MFP under PESA. Now 50 percent of the net profit
goes directly to the gatherers, 30 percent to the primary
cooperative societies (to be distributed in proportion to
the leaves collected), and the remaining 20 percent is used
for the purpose of regenerating forests.
|
The nationalization of the tendu in MP was
indeed a success in that it improved the economic lot of
the primary gatherers. Orissa, by contrast does not pass
on the profits from the tendu trade to the gatherers. Till
date, the administrative control of the cooperative structure
is with the forest department, be it the primary societies
at the village level, the district level societies, or the
state level society. In fact 18 years since its creation,
the members of the state level coordinating body are nominated,
not elected. The bad news for the tendu trade is that the
bidi industry is declining as it is loosing popularity to
gutka.
(Ref.: Down to earth; Feb.
28,2003;pp31 - 32) |
