Occupational hazards for unskilled women at construction sites

Women from low strata have substantial participation in unorganized work sector for living; and their employment in construction sector comes naturally when they migrate to cities with their husbands. However, they face multidimensional hazards which need to be examined with the intention of remedial measures. Present study is in this direction which was conducted on 80 such women who were totally into unskilled work at construction sites. Interview schedule was used to collect data and standardized scales were employed to measure the intensity and frequency of occurrence of some potential hazards. Results revealed that the major accidental hazards in construction industry as perceived by respondents were: being hit by falling objects, crushing of body parts, trips, abrasion of skin, slips, pinching of body parts and falls. Hazards due to poor sanitation facilities were perceived to be ‘intestinal problem, urinary tract infection and contagious diseases’ by most of respondents. Most prominent musculoskeletal problems identified by respondents were constant pain of body parts, muscular cramps, cervical pain, low back pain and cervical problems. Women in construction industry faced reproductive hazards too as overall ranking given by them pointed hazards of ‘miscarriage’, ‘premature delivery’, ‘infertility’ and ‘effect on menstruation’ being the major ones they experienced in recent past. Women in this work sector were also affected by psychosocial hazards as revealed by higher scores given by them to problems like addiction (to tobacco), frustration, stress of being laid off, gender biased problems and anxiety.