This report focuses on the growing economic and health crisis caused by bidi smoking. The monograph outlines a startling picture of the bidi industry; it depicts very clearly how the bidi industry is among the most exploitative industries which also is responsible for taking 6, 00,000 lives annually in India.

Bidi is as harmful as cigarette if not more. The Monograph talks about how bidi smoking increases the risk of oral cancer, cancer of the lung, stomach, and oesophagus, heart disease, chronic lung disease, asthma and tuberculosis. Apart from causing such serious diseases, bidi harms everyone connected with it. Farmers are affected by Green Tobacco Sickness, rollers by ingestion of tobacco dust, smokers by tobacco smoke and bystanders by second hand tobacco smoke.

Poor are the most affected by bidis. It is the poor farmers who grow bidi, the poor workers who roll bidis and the poor people who smoke bidis. Indiahas 100 million bidi smokers, majority of them being illiterate and poor.

Bidi industry does not even show mercy towards those who are involved in the making of a bidi. Bidi workers are among the most exploited workers in India .

Women constitute 76-95% of total employment in bidi manufacturing who ultimately suffer from serious health diseases and sexual exploitation at work. Nearly 225,000 children are engaged in bidi making, despite bidi manufacturing being listed as a hazardous employment for the children.

The Monograph highlights the key issue of bidi taxation in detail. In spite of the taxes on bidis being so less, the bidi manufacturers still evade taxes. The reason is that the bidi industry falls under the unorganized sector. The excise duty on handmade bidis (Rss 14 per 1,000) is only 8% ofthe excise duty on micro non-filter cigarettes (Rs 168 per 1,000). Although there are no specific figures on how many bidis are produced annually, estimates range from 750 billion to 1.2 trillion - only 360 billion bidis were tax paid in 2006/07, so 52 to 70% of bidis were untaxed.

The Monograph also calls for an immediate action to reduce the harm caused by Bidis. It reemphasizes the compelling need to implement strong pictorial warnings on all tobacco products including bidis.