Prevalence of health problems of rag pickers due to various hazards at Lucknow city

Abstract

BackgroundIn India, rag pickers form the base of hierarchy of informal sector of the solid waste management. Occupational health and safety is one of the most important aspects of rag pickers. ObjectiveThis paper describes the various health problems faced by the rag pickers at Lucknow City. Materials and methodsThis study was carried out on four hundred rag pickers comprising of male and female. Multi stage random sampling technique was adopted for selecting rag pickers. Interview method was used to collect the information from the sample. The data has been collected from the rag pickers working in different sites of Lucknow city. The data was coded and analyzed using IBM SPSS 20.0 Version. ResultsIt was observed from the data that rag pickers generally suffer from respiratory problems (19%), eye problems (40%), dermatological problems (22%) and injuries (60.5%). Additionally the high prevalence of general health problems such as fever (78%), cough and cold (83.5%), diarrhea and dysentery (40%) were reported to be high. Road accidents and fall (23%), animal bite (16.5%)) and frost bite (16.5%) significantly are higher among rag pickers. ConclusionStudy shows the work related health problems were reported to be high. Efforts should be put to develop training materials on occupational and environmental health and injuries relating to rag pickers.