A Study on Socio Demographic & Health Condition of Brick Field Workers in Different Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Objective: To identify socio demographic & health condition of the workers employed in the brick kilns of Bangladesh by studying selected subject population. Methods: It is a survey based study, where data was obtained from 276 brick field workers in 9 brick fields at Savar Upazilla, Dhaka District. Data was been collected based on questionnaires form, divided into socio demographic information, basic health status, medical information. Result: Major workforce (90.97%) in the brick fields of the study area is found migrants. 65% of them didn’t received any institutional education. Due to heavy workload (8-9 hours) in the field many workers recently suffered from discomfort in different parts of their body, especially in their lower back (21.73%), muscles of hands and legs (17.02%). The study shows recently administered medication by the workers is mostly NSAIDs(10.50%) for relief of pain on body parts, vitamin supplements(5.07%) for body weakness. High numbers of workers (76.81%) in the brick fields smoke biri/cigarette which is injurious to their health. Workers so often suffered small injuries during their work. Majority of the respondents (91.30%) from the study faces small cut, wounds on their body parts especially hands and legs. 4.34% of the respondents facing problems in their sleep during night, as they do hard work all over the day and aged workers are found with 2.17% memory loss. 70.40% did not seek any medical treatment largely due to their economical condition (59.03%). Conclusion: With the high demand of infrastructure development, brick making industry in Bangladesh is a rapidly growing sector. Health of the brick field workers must have an impact on the overall health status of the country. There are lots of areas, in which health of the brick field workers need to be improved.