Kannur: This is a tale of grit and gumption of workers rendered jobless for reasons beyond their control to find a livelihood.

This is also a tale of how a cooperative collective - Kerala Dinesh - backed by the state government did wonders for them and many of their ilk.

Seventy-five-year-old Pookkodan Chandran would be among the 63 'protest heroes' to be honoured by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on March 9, Kerala Dinesh Beedi's 50th anniversary.

An initiative by the state government in 1969 to provide jobs for those who turned jobless after the closure of tobacco companies in Malabar, 'Kerala Dinesh' is now providing direct employment to more than 6,000 in food, apparel, hotel and IT sectors.

Chandran was among the union leaders, who rallied behind communist stalwart A K Gopalan in the Mangalore protest, when the tobacco companies based in Mangaluru (which was then called Mangalore), downed shutters pushing thousands of families to starvation.

AKG was the leader of the largest opposition group in Parliament then.

“Though the centre passed the Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment Act) in 1966, the state governments had the discretion to implement the same. Kerala government decided to implement the Act and directed the companies to give the provisions stipulated in the Act, for the labourers. This was not acceptable for the companies. Our struggles started when the tobacco company owners based in Mangalore closed down and left all of a sudden,” recollects Chandran.

Thousands of families in Malabar, dependent on the sector, were left without jobs. They did not possess skills to land other jobs.

“Mangalore Ganesh beedi alone had 12,000 labourers working under it,” he said.

Along with several other union leaders, Chandran was jailed for staging a protest in Mangalore.

By time he was released after three-and-a-half months, the state government backed the trade unions to form a collective under 'Dinesh'.

In the beginning, only 3,000 jobless workers could be offered employment.

Chandran, who was Tobacco Workers' union joint secretary, too got selected as the leader of one of the 21 primary co-operative societies hit by the shutdown of tobacco companies.

Growth and challenges

In the 1980s, the societies together could generate employment to nearly 42,000 people.

However, curbs on tobacco affected the business. By 1990s, many workers turned to other jobs. Kerala Dinesh then initiated efforts to rehabilitate workers to other sectors, says C Rajan, chairman of the golden jubilee committee.

It was an offshoot of such diversification efforts that 'Cafe Dinesh' was started in 2015 with the purpose of providing quality food at a reasonable price.

After opening the first restaurant in Thalassery, it spread to Pinarayi, Payyannur and Kannur.

Co-operative wonder

From 2014, the Kerala Dinesh Beedi workers' Central Co-operative Society won the 'Fair Business Practice' award from Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India, for four years in a row.

It is one of the largest industrial co-operative societies in the country.

The co-op society, with an annual turn over of Rs 74 crore, has 29 units spread across food processing, information technology, umbrella making and apparel design sectors. Beedi is still its main sector, with 5000 employees and an approximate annual turn out of Rs 60 crore.