Editorial

Occupational Health problems in Informal Sector

in India need immediate attention
Jugal Kishore1, Ashwani Ranjan2, Rupsa Banerjee3
Occupational structure is classified as primary, secondary and tertiary sector and all are having organized and
unorganized sector. Informal sector or unorganized sector includes all those workers and tiny economic units that are
not recognized, recorded, protected or regulated by formal arrangements in law or in practice.1Unorganized workers
do not have social security benefits which workers in the formal sector enjoy from their employers and government.
These workers are often exposed to various occupational hazards during their course of employment. Due to a lack of
regulations governing occupational safety and standards in the unorganized sector, the occurrence of occupational
diseases in common among these workers.

About 340 million Indian i.e. 92% of the workforce is engaged in the informal sector.2 Each year around 18 million
Indian enters into the labour market, less than 3.45 million jobs are available that pushes 14.5 million into informal
Sector and severe unemployment.3

The most common examples of informal employment in India are agriculture, construction work, carpet weaving,
beedi making, garment making, blacksmith and welding, pottery, agarbatti making, food vending, domestic
employment, auto and rickshaw driving, local car and two wheeler workshops, rag picking and manual scavenging. All
these employments are associated with exposure to hazards and risks to various occupational diseases. These hazards
are physical, chemical, mechanical and biological environment at the workplace which is neither monitored not
controlled by any regulatory body. Several occupational injuries, respiratory diseases, cancers, dermatitis,
pneumoconiosis and zoonoses commonly affect the workers. Workplace related accidents and injuries are often seen
to occur leading to death and disability.

The workers of informal sector do not have access to any organised occupational health service. This results in neglect
and delay in seeking care in case of any disease or disability arising out of occupational hazards. It also leads to a
deficiency of provision of healthful working conditions for these workers.

The informal sector has seven specific problems that expose them to different occupation health hazards.

1. Workers in the informal sector are mostly not covered by social security scheme as Indian Industries Act 1948
even with its amendment do not cover factories having less than 10 employees.4 In India, 55.86 million
establishments (95.50%) were having 1-5 workers, around 1.83 million establishments (3.13%) were having 6-9
workers, while 0.8 million establishments (1.37%) employed 10 or more workers.5 Thus around 98% of Indian
establishments are not providing security for health care; incapacity for work due to illness; disability through
work; unemployment; maternity leaves; child maintenance; old age pension or support to the family after the
death of the breadwinner.
1,2,3
Department of Community Medicine, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & SJH, New Delhi.
Correspondence: Dr. Jugal Kishore, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College & SJH, New Delhi.

E-mail Id: drjugalkishore@gmail.com

Orcid Id: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6246-5880

How to cite this article: Kishore J, Ranjan A, Banerjee R. Occupational Health problems in Informal Sector in India need immediate
attention. Epidem Int 2017; 2(2): 1-3.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.24321/2455.7048.201705

ISSN: 2455-7048

© ADR Journals 2017. All Rights Reserved.

Editorial
2. Workers in informal sectors are not using protective
devices and that aggravate risk to respiratory
illnesses, eye problems, skin problem, hearing loss
etc. The temporary nature of occupational setup
and belonging to poor socioeconomic status
reduces their priority to occupational health and
safety.
3. Indian informal sector is characterized by congested
workplaces, restricted work area, poor illumination,
hot and dusty environment, long working hours,
strenuous work postures, repetitive movements
and high physical activities, extreme environmental
conditions of high temperatures and humidity.6
Hence workers suffer from musculoskeletal
complaints, respiratory health hazards, headache,
eye problems, mental stress, abdominal pain
hearing loss and skin related complaints.6
4. Informal sector involves most of female workers
and child labourers. In addition to paid work,
women also do other demanding jobs like cooking,
cleaning and bearing and taking care of children.
The extended work hours puts tremendous
pressure on women’s bodies and minds leading to
musculoskeletal problems and mental stress.7 Child
labour deprives physical, psycho-social
development of the children leading to higher rates
of alcoholism, tobacco use, HIV/STDs, occupational
injuries and diseases among them.
5. No reliable government data on the numbers of the
person involved in the informal sector, their
working conditions and specific health hazards
leading to difficulty in making policy and doing
interventions at large scale.
6. The health of these workers is also affected by their
living conditions. Most of the workers in informal
sectors live in slum areas and jhoupari clusters of
villages (Rural Slums in almost every village of
India). Currently, 34.5% of the population of
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai live in slum
settlements.8 26% of households living in slum
settlements have no access to any arrangement for
garbage collection and 18% suffer from insufficient
drinking water, the comparable proportions for
non-slum areas being 19% and 10% respectively.8
Inadequate access to pure water and poor
sanitation has given rise to diseases such as dengue,
malaria, TB and diarrhoea.
7. Many workers of informal sectors are daily wagers
and are the migrant worker without having any
Below Poverty Line (BP) card. Lack of BPL card
denies their right to have some basic amount of
food to eat and getting health services from
government facility without paying user money.
National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) data
ISSN: 2455-7048
Epidem. Int. 2017; 2(2)
shows 55 per cent of slum dwellers have been living
in the slums for over 15 years and another 12 per
cent between 10-15 years. Even after living in slum
from such a long duration 75 per cent of slum
households have not received any benefits from any
of the governmental programs.8
All the above seven conditions represent that
government and the public know about the adversities
of the informal sector still very few associations or
government organizations are coming forward to
safeguard informal workers.
According to the World Health Organization, poor
occupational health and reduced working capacity of
workers cause economic loss up to 10-20% of the Gross
National Product of a country.9,10
Way forward to improve occupational health in Informal
sector workers.
1. National level data generation work has been given
to NITI Aayog but with only 3200 NSSO employees
in India as compared to 29,000 in China 11 it will
most likely be a head counting exercise. Similarly,
National Family Health Survey mandate does not
cover occupational health problems. Therefore,
National Occupational Health Program should be
initiated with objectives of assessment of
occupational diseases in all types of work settings,
early diagnosis and management at the primary
care level and appropriate referral to higher
centres. Medical colleges, NGO and research
workers should help in capturing informal workers,
their work conditions, wages, specific health
hazards, access to health facilities and their family
health.
2. In National health policy, 2017 Government of India
provided the specific target of reduction of
occupational injury by half from current levels of
334 per lakh agricultural workers by 202012. We
need to ascertain this goal fulfilment by providing
surveillance data increasing public awareness and
suggesting solutions by research.
3. Worksites and institutions should be encouraged
and monitored to ensure safe health practices and
accident prevention, besides providing preventive
and promotive health care services. This can be
started by formulating national health care
guidelines for informal sector workers. Methods to
implement these guidelines should also be
discussed in detail.
4. Workers living in the slum, construction sites, brick
kiln, rag pickers and other should be provided with
B.P.L card and RashtryaSwasthBimaYojna (RSBY)
2
Epidem. Int. 2017; 2(2)
card by the government based on vulnerability
assessment and not by demanding proof of
residence. Strong political will is most important
thing required to provide basic health care to these
poor's through the convergence of various scheme
and starting National Occupational Health Program.
People working in informal sector includes the most
deprived and poor community working as daily wages
labourer, the domestic worker at our houses, the
worker at small shops, street vendors, home based
worker, landless agricultural workers, construction
workers etc. All of these poor’s are exploited by their
employees in form of more working hours with fewer
payments, unsafe working environment, the difference
between male and female workers, no support during
illness,using child labour,etc without giving damn to law
and rights of the country.13 Hence active intervention by
government and all of us is required to prevent them at
least from occupational health hazards.
References
1. International labor organization Informal economy.
Available at http://www.ilo.org/ilostat-files/
Documents/description_IFL_EN.pdf.
2. National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector . Available at http://dcmsme.
gov.in/Condition_of_workers_sep_2007.pdf.
3. Guddi Tiwary, P. K. Gangopadhyay. A review on the
occupational health and social security of
unorganized workers in the construction industry.
Indian J Occup Environ Med. 2011 Jan-Apr; 15(1):
18–24.
4. Factories Act, 1948 - National Portal of India.
Available at www.archive.india.gov.in/business/
legal_aspects/factories_act.php.
5. National Policy on Safety, Health and Environment
3 ISSN: 2455-7048
Editorial
at Work Place.Ministry of Labour and Employment,
Government of India Available at http://labour.
gov.in/sites/default/files/SafetyHealthandEnviron
mentatWorkPlace.pdf.
6. Anjali Nag, Heer Vyas, and Pranab Nag.
Occupational health scenario of Indian informal
sector Ind Health. 2016 Jul; 54(4): 377–
385.Published online 2016 Feb.
7. Sardana MMK. Health and safety at workplaces in
India. Available at http://isid.org.in/pdf/DN
1204.pdf.
8. Report of the working group on urban poverty,
slums, and serivce delivery system Steering
Committee on Urbanization Planning Commission,
New Delhi http://planningcommission.nic.in/
aboutus/committee/wrkgrp12/hud/wg_Final_Urb
_Pvt.pdf.
9. Raising Awareness of Stress at Work in Developing
Countries A modern hazard in a traditional working
environment Advice to employers and worker
representatives. Available at http://www.who.
int/occupational_health/publications/raisingawar
enessofstress.pdf.
10. National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganized Sector (2008) Contribution of the
unorganized sector to GDP report of the
subcommittee of a NCEUS Task Force.
11. Ramesh PB. Rethinking Social Protection for India's
Working Poor in the Unorganized Sector, Cross
National Policy Exchange: Asia Social Protection
Papers. 2009:1–18.
12. National Health Policy 2017www.nhp.gov.in//
NHPfiles/national_health_policy_2017.pdf.
13. Bhat JA, Yadav P. Economic Informal Sector and the
Perspective of Informal Workers in India. Available
at www.omicsonline.org/open-access/economic-
informal-sector-and-the-perspective-of-informal-
workers-in-india-2151-6200-1000241.php.