Occupational health problems of construction workers in India

Context: Construction industry is one of the stable growing industries of the world and in India it is the largest economic activity after agriculture. Construction workers are at a greater risk of developing certain health disorders and sickness than workers in many other industries. Very little research has been done on the occupational health, hazards and psychosocial problems of these workers especially in Asian countries like India. Aims: The aim of this study is to understand the occupational health problems of construction workers — building and civil, to compare the morbidities among these two categories of workers. Settings and Design: The cross-sectional study was conducted at Kozhikode district of Kerala, India. Materials and Methods: Construction projects were selected by simple random method and all workers (N = 410) were enrolled as study subjects. Data was collected by the team consisting of investigators, doctors and social worker using a pre tested validated structured proforma. Results: Data was collected from 387 (94.4%) workers. Most of them belonged to the young age group (26.8 years). The prevalence of past morbidity like tuberculosis (1%), malaria (13.7%) and jaundice (10.6%), typhoid (3.4%) were higher than the general population in both groups without any statistically significant differences between them. Prevalence of injury was higher among civil work group (17.2% and 6.6%.) Current fever, respiratory infections, eye disease were higher among Group I, skin and musculo-skeletal problems were similar. Conclusions: Measures are needed to improve the work environment of construction workers by ensuring availability of protective gears, sanitation facilities at the sites along with an accessible, accountable occupational health services.