Access to safe water and occupational health hazards a case study of bidi workers in purulia of West Bengal

Bidi rolling is a popular small-scale industry in Purulia which provides employment for over 1 lakh women bidi workers, particularly in the Purulia west region. Purulia west is a sub division of the Purulia district which, comes under extended part of Chhotonagpur Platue, where major population are of low socio-economic status especially in rural area. A large section of population is dependent of bidi rolling for their survival. A descriptive cross-sectional study has been used to assess the impact of access to sanitation facilities and to safe usable water on the occupational health problems among bidi workers.

A total of 124 household containing 663 people were selected by purposive sampling method. We have used a predesigned, pretested questionnaire for collection of data to be analysed by appropriate statistical method. Most of the bidi workers were living in poor environmental and housing conditions. Around 80% of these workers are suffering from water crisis for domestic use and/or drinking purposes. It was observed that almost 70% of the workers developed occupational health problems as reported by the male and female bidi workers. Apart from the musculo-skeletal problems (65%), there are also gastrointestinal (40%), skin diseases (dermatitis) (37%) cough (27%), breathlessness (20%), and tuberculosis (2.8%) among other problems.

Our empirical study shows that the occupational health hazards are lessened by the access to sanitation facilities and to safe usable water among bidi workers.