Government of Chhattisgarh has decided to allocate 12 lakh pairs of specifically designed shoes to tendu leaf pluckers in distant tribal districts of the state that will assist them to gather tendu leaves from the deep, tricky parts of the forest.
Tendu or Diospyros melanoxylon plant, commonly known as ebony, is widely used in India to make hand-made tobacco cigarettes or bidis.
This is the most common economic activity of the tribes in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.
Statistics confirm that in the agriculture alone, tendu provides employment to over 150 million workers.
Besides, the labour involved in the bidi making is also significant.
The National Advisory Council (NAC) considers it one of the important factors in improving the lot of scheduled tribes (STs).
NAC believes that even if 50 percent of the produced gross from the tendu leaves is shared with the pluckers, it would, on an average, lead to an additional income of Rs 1000 to Rs 1500 per annum per household.
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