As Murshidabad debates infiltration, SIR, its beedi workers battle poverty, exploitation

SAMSERGANJ (WB): (Apr 20) As political parties criss-cross Murshidabad promising to stop infiltration and restore names deleted during the SIR ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls, 12-year-old Ruksana Khatun sits cross-legged on the mud floor of her house in Suti, rolling tobacco into tendu leaves before leaving for school.

Beside the girl, her mother Rahima Bibi works at a frantic speed. A pile of nearly 600 beedis lies in a corner. They still have 400 more to make before noon. The child is not officially a worker. On paper, she is only helping her mother.

But in Murshidabad's sprawling beedi belt -- stretching across Suti, Samserganj, Dhuliyan, Jangipur and Lalgola -- thousands of children quietly help their families meet impossible daily targets, while local contractors who control the trade also wield enormous influence over village politics.