Reproductive Health Challenges and Coping Strategies: A Study of Female Construction Workers in India

Abstract

Reproductive Health (RH) is a key area of focus which can lead towards an overall empowerment of women. Better RH positively contributes in the process of human development and augments the socio-economic welfare of the population. Safe motherhood is a crucial aspect of reproductive health services. Adequate utilization of health care services during pregnancy and delivery ensures a healthy mother. With the rapid increase in construction sector, the number of female construction workers is growing. Prolonged working hours, strenuous work and unhealthy environment exposure among the female workers is making them more vulnerable to the health issues such as lower abdominal pain, irregular periods, prolapsed uterus, miscarriages, reproductive tract infections (RTIs) and sexually transmitted diseases(STDs).This study aims:(i) to explore the various problems related to reproductive health faced by the women workers in the construction sites;(ii) to examine the health seeking behaviour and coping strategies for various reproductive health problems; (iii) to assess the impact of workplace culture on RH problems and; (iv) to explore the impact of women’s autonomy and experience of domestic violence on their RH decision making. The study was confined to the major construction sites present in the city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha. A total of 288 sampled respondents were randomly selected from ten different construction sites of the city. The key finding indicates that the prevalence of RTIs/STIs morbidity is widely present among women in the age group of 15-49 years. The nature of harassment reported was more of verbal by nature than physical or sexual. Among the respondents (81%) of women workers reported that generally contractor shouts at them and the behavior is also same towards the other workers also. Moreover, the female workers feel that they do not get sufficient leave while unwell as they have to join the work to sustain their family. Unwillingness to seek treatment, cultural stigmatization was quoted to be the major reasons for not availing health care facilities by these workers. Women’s experiences of different forms of domestic violence leading to several levels of emotional and physical trauma were found to significantly diminish their antenatal health. Moreover, availability of social protection mechanism among these female construction workers to a large extent can solve the issue of unmet needs of RH. The findings of the present study will help in addressing the challenges faced by the female construction workers and to cater the growing healthcare needs of this segment of the population