UTTAR PRADESH-Some More Feudal Rivalries


worker shall be paid wages for the leave period at a rate equal to his average daily wages during the month immediately preceding his leave; that for the weekly holiday, the worker shall be paid at a rate equal to his average daily wage for the days immediately preceding the weekly holiday. However, the Beedi and Cigarette Workers Act remains a dead letter at Sinnar and the adjoining villages. This writer was told by representatives of beedi workers that workers get neither a paid weekly holiday nor paid annual leave. Women workers do not get any maternity leave, though the Act stipulates three months' maternity leave, Most women workers return to work within a fortnight of delivery. If they do not go to work in the 'karkhanas', they work at home. Women workers continue to work in the most unhealthy conditions throughout their pre-natal period, inhaling injurious tobacco fumes, They work in these conditions often with infants on their laps and huddled together with male workers.