A group of researches has urged the government to declare beedi rolling a hazardous process and recommended alternative sources of livelihood for them.
The call follows review of 95 studies conducted on occupational health hazards of beedi workers in the country.
Researchers from the George Institute for Global Health analysed studies from Karnataka; Tamil Nadu; West Bengal and Maharashtra.
In India 71.8 million adults smoke beedi and the cottage industry sector employs women mostly.
The studies suggest around 87% of workers reported symptoms such as pain in the back, shoulder, neck, knee, joints, spondylitis, tiredness and body ache. Workers had musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, skin, cardiovascular, oral and eye diseases.
The women workers had more miscarriages and abortions; lower fertility rate; and higher uterine problems. Pregnant women engaged in beedi rolling were 1.4 times more likely to be anaemic; three times at higher risk for pregnancy induced hypertension and 2.5 times increased risk of foetal growth restriction.
Newborns of mothers involved in the work were at 1.9 times higher risk for low birth weight and 1.7 times at higher risk for smaller for gestational age. Often young children accompanied and helped their mothers at work, the studies had revealed. And as much as 87% of children had headache and body pain besides respiratory issues such as cough, TB, asthma, breathlessness and giddiness.
Jyoti Tyagi, research fellow at the Institute said one of the recommendations of their analysis was to train the beedi rollers in alternative livelihood methods with better payment as they currently received less than $2 for rolling 1,000 beedis. “We recommend more trials and intervention,” she said.
Based on the Institute’s study, the World Health Organisation has called for screening women workers for cervical cancer and respiratory diseases under National Health Mission and Ayushman Bharat schemes.
It has recommended classifying beedi rolling work as a hazardous process under national and State level legislations, including the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 (OSH Code) and dis-incentivising beedi rolling as a home-based informal sector and bring it under the organised sector to ensure their safety and protection.
The Institute’s project was funded by the WHO, which on its part has called for study to understand the direct and indirect costs borne by beedi workers, the public health system and economy to guide policy and decision making.
It has also suggested studies on the occupational health of the workers with specific standard clinical diagnostic criteria instead of symptom-based studies.
