A Comparative Study on Health Status of Male and Female Agricultural Workers

Abstract

Health of agricultural workers is of special concern because of greater exposure to toxic chemicals, work-related injuries, poor working conditions and other occupational hazards. This paper examines the health of agricultural workers in the Deesa Taluka of Gujarat state in India and makes two distinct contributions to the literature on the health of agricultural workers. First, it provides a comprehensive look at agricultural workers’ health by using a large set of health indicators. Secondly, it will deal with various factors affecting health status of agricultural workers. The body composition parameters of agricultural workers pointed out the fact that majority of them were either under nutritive or over nutritive. They need to have balanced diet and nutrition. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate of few male and female workers did not fall under normal range. Health hazards such as stress (84%), hearing loss (56%), headache (47%) and burning eyes (40%) were reported more by male workers while the highest percentage of female workers reported musculoskeletal disorders (58%) followed by chest pain, abdominal pain, dermatitis, memory problems and vomiting. Intervention programmes should be developed to create awareness amongst agricultural workers to work under safe condition as far as possible and policy should be developed to remove malnutrition problem.