Health Risks of Municipal Workers Health risks of municipal sanitary workers:A case study of Varanasi

Municipal sanitary workers clean our cities through its various activities like the collection, storage, transportation and disposal of solid waste. Risk occurs at every step in the process of collection to disposal. These workers are at risk being killed or severely injured by moving equipment, such as dumphers carrying waste, bulldozers, trucks or JCB machine particularly when vehicles are reversing. The common health problems these workers suffer from fever, cold and cough, headache, diarrhea, fatigue, malaise, skin irritation, musculoskeletal problem, gastrointestinal problem, respiratory disease and chronic bronchitis, etc. due to nature of work of municipal sanitary workers it becomes difficult to perform such a job in full senses. Therefore, these workers easily fall prey to alcohol and other substance use which further enhance their health vulnerabilities. The main objective of the present thesis is: to study the type of municipal sanitary workers, their problems, and workload in VMC. To assess health condition of municipal sanitary workers in VMC. To study the association between the working condition and health/morbidity status.