Health hazards among beedi rollers in Dakshina Kannada District Of Karnataka: A case study of women workers

Beedi rolling is one of the major unorganized sector activities in India, which employs a large number of women labourers. The India’s Ministry of Labour estimates about 50 lakh workers in the beedi rolling industry, majority of them are home based women workers. Women constitute a very high percentage of labour force in the beedi manufacturing. Beedi rolling activity has become an instrumental in generating supplementary income among the poor families who are economically and socially backward in rural and semi urban areas. Income generated from the beedi rolling helps the poor to overcome the problems of poverty and brings a cumulative effect on the process of income and employment generation. There have been a studies pertaining health issues of beedi rollers in different places. The most commonly found problems are asthma, tuberculosis, back strain, spondelitis, swelling of lower limbs and digestion problems. For woman the problems related to menstruation and pregnancy where they have heavy bleeding and lower back pain during menstruation and pain in lower abdomen. In this backdrop, the present paper an attempt to anlyse the health hazards faced by women beedi rollers in Karnataka.