Health Status of Workers Engaged in the Small-scale Garment Industry: How Healthy are They?

Though India is now considered a major power and is turning into a developed country from a developing country, a large section of its population still belong to the poorest of the poor. In developing countries, great efforts are directed towards the advancement of small-scale industries as these are considered the engine for their economic growth. According to WHO, over 1000 million people worldwide are employed in small-scale industries.(1) The ‘garment’ industry of India is one such industry. It is an unorganized sector, mostly run by private establishments. It provides employment for both men and women, mainly those from the lower socioeconomic classes. The employees of this industry hardly ever benefit from occupational health-and-safety provisions. As a result their health suffers.(1) Studies show that musculoskeletal problems, diseases of the respiratory system and eye, accidents, injuries, skin diseases, stress, insomnia, etc. are all common among these workers. The ill health is compounded by various socioeconomic factors such as poverty, lack of education, poor working conditions, excess working hours, and poor diet.(2–4) Against this background, and because no such study has been carried out in this part of the country to date, we conducted this study among workers employed in the ‘garment’ industry; we had the following objectives: To find out the morbidity profile of the workers with special reference to musculoskeletal disorders. To assess the relationship of socio-demographic and occupational factors with the musculoskeletal disorders. To assess the felt needs of these workers. Materials and Methods This was a community-based cross-sectional study carried out in a slum area of Kolkata. The study was conducted from September 2008 - November 2008. There are three main areas in the slum where almost all those engaged in the small-scale garment industry reside. One such area was chosen by simple random sampling. A complete enumeration of all workers in the chosen area was done. There were one hundred and twelve such workers who were identified and all of them consented to participate in the study. The subjects were then interviewed using a predesigned, pre-tested, semi structured questionnaire that had been translated into the local language; the questionnaire collected data on socioeconomic conditions, occupational history, health problems. The felt needs of the workers were obtained from two Focus Group Discussions in each of which 9 workers participated. The researchers organized the group discussions after assuring confidentiality to the participants. Efforts were made to elicit the problems faced by them at their place of work, dealings with their employer and the changes they would like for a better and conducive working environment.