A study on occupational health hazards among women beedi rollers in Tamilnadu, India.

Nakkeeran, Senthil kumar and Pugalendhi, Subburethina Bharathi (2010): A study on occupational health hazards among women beedi rollers in Tamilnadu, India. Published in: International Journal of current research , Vol. 11, No. 1 (5 December 2010): pp. 117-122.

Abstract

The beedi industry occupies a prominent place in rural development in terms of its capacity to offer potential employment opportunities to a large number of people. For the beedi industry Tamilnadu is one of the major hub in India. It is estimated that around one million workers mostly woman and children are employed in Beedi making. It is an ardu¬ous, labour intensive task because each beedi is rolled individually. Beedi industry is almost an unorganized sector hence even the government officials finding it difficult to enforce the various legal requirements. Apart from the other legal implications the health hazards which the women employees who are rolling the beedis are enormous. This study aims to explore the level of health hazards experienced by the woman beedi rollers in Tamilnadu. A total of 388 usable responses obtained from women beedi rollers comprising from the beedi rollers concentrated districts i.e., Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Tiruchirappalli & Vellore are used for this study. The study found that more than 70% of the beedi rollers suffered from eye, gastrointestinal and nervous problems while more than 50% of the respondents suffered from respiratory problems, mostly throat burning and cough. More than 75% of the respon¬dents faced osteological problems. From the study is it understood that the health hazards level is very high. This study proposes a framework to be implemented with the Government agencies, NGOs and Welfare organizations for the welfare of the beedi rollers.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Beedi rollers, Health Hazards, Welfare measures, Tamilnadu.
• Subjects: K - Law and Economics > K3 - Other Substantive Areas of Law > K32 - Environmental, Health, and Safety Law; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy ; Regulation ; Public Health

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