Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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Prahlad Nayak, an experienced employee of OFDC who once worked for Titagarh Paper
Mills, believes that the actual number of cutters in the state was within 25000 to 30000(per
comm..), 10 to 15% of which would that of the casual cutters who do not regularly depend
on bamboo cutting. Interestingly enough, the Empowered Committee on bamboo also said
that revival of bamboo cutting operations would benefit around 20000 cutters in the
state(vide proceedings of the meeting held on 11-10-04).
To ignore 20 to 25% exaggerations in the estimated numbers, the above table suggests that
the maximum concentration of the cutters lies in the southern districts. Next comes
Kalahandi district of western Orissa followed by the coastal districts beyond Ganjam.
In 2005, about 300 cutters were employed by BILT in the Dasapalla area for harvesting
around 4000 tons of IB and 11000 pieces of long bamboo within a period of less than 6
months(source:Mr.S.D.Sinha).
In 1978, cutters were paid Re.0.30 per bundles of salia(per comm., Dandapani Mohanty)
which increased by more than 10 times by 2000. Minimum daily wage was a determining
factor in the fixation of cutters' wage although in actual cases there was no guarantee that
supervisors working for private lessees would stick to that.
In 1989-90, the expenditure on cutting, bundling and stacking was Rs.105/SU of industrial
bamboo. The production of IB that year being 231949.53 SU, the total expenditure on this
head was Rs. 24354700.65. At that time, the average minimum daily wage being Rs.10.50,
this much expenditure would mean 23.19 lakh mandays. Following chart indicates the
trend of employment generated from bamboo cutting as against that of the change of
minimum daily wages and production of IB over the years 30 :
30 Mandays calculation varies for the same year on the basis of the factors used. For instance, in 1989-90 total
working cost was Rs.325, and accordingly mandays generated would be about 71 lakhs. Rs.105/SU implied
mandays generated basically in the first stage of harvesting i.e., cutting, dragging and stacking by the cutters.
Other cost of production involves rebundling at depots, loading in trucks, etc., which generate additional
mandays.
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