2015-12-18 03:50:52
Cooperatives form a major segment of the beedi industry in Kerala and they provide employment to more than 30000 workers. This is in sharp contrast to the all-India situation where, beedi cooperatives form only a marginal segment of both the beedi industry and the industrial cooperative sector ln Indial. Therefore, unlike coir and handloom cooperatives, the data on beedi cooperatives are not available in the 17 industry classifications of industrial cooperatives in the published data. A mac~o-analysis of the cooperatives in the beedi industry is beyond ou~ reach. Our study of beedi cooperatives in Kerala for:us or: the twenty two primary cooperatives and one central cooperative operating in the northern districts of Cannanore, Kasargod and Calj_cut districts, commonly known as Kerala Dinesh Beedi (KDB) Cooperatives. A few other beedi cooperatives function in the other districts. But they hardly account for five percent of the cooperative output and employment. Being rather recent entrants to the industry, they also stand apart from KDB coopera~ives which have completed twenty five years of working. Hence, our study of beedi cooperatives is exclusively focused on the KDB cooperatives.