receiving Rs. 5, while farmer was getting just Rs. 6.50. Later on, government doubled the excise rate; so it started getting Rs. 10 per kilo of tobacco (sold in the form of bidis); whereas farmers continued to get the previous rate of Rs. 6.50! This was the extent of their exploitation. Even the government was a party to it, because excise department was collecting more money from this business than the farmers. Joshi calculated that during the financial year 1979-80, Central Government got Rs. 21 crores by way of excise from this region whereas farmers had made a net loss of Rs. 12 crore. Joshi addressed several meetings to explain the true picture. Backed by figures his arguments were most convincing. On 24 February a joint rally of tobacco farmers and tobacco workers (from wakhars) was organized. Joshi was clear that both these arms of the business had to fight this battle jointly. He had also included the bidi-making women since they too were equally involved. A lot of work had gone into planning; Joshi himself had addressed as many as 15 smaller meetings to prepare for the rally. In that joint rally it was agreed that seven main demands would be presented to the Government who would in turn enforce them on the traders since it was the Government that eventually controlled the trading activity. Local action committee headed by well-known Gandhian Annu Guruji was formed. There were nine other members of the Committee representing main tobacco centers which included Kolhapur, Sankeshwar, Akkol, Galtagaa, Eksamba, Kapshi and Nipani. The seven main demands were as follows: 1. The existing rate given to tobacco of Rs. 6 to 7 a kilo is abysmally less and it has to be minimum Rs. 10, 12 or 15 depending on the quality. 2. The deduction in weight (soot) should not exceed two kilos per sack (which weighed 60 kilos).
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Sharad Joshi : Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage
