General Health Status of Women Beedi Workers in Mysuru City

The present study is an attempt to find out the health status of the beedi workers representing unorganized sector of Mysuru. A total of 900 respondents were selected from eight different areas of Mysuru. Based on the availability of respondents and the majority of contribution from female employees who are home based beedi workers. The tools used for the study were General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) which identifies minor psychiatric problems such as depression, sleeplessness, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, insecurity, pessimism and suicidal tendencies.  The results revealed that the whole 53.3% of the selected beedi workers sample expressed somatic symptoms, 51.9% of them expressed anxiety, 42.6% of them were suffering from social dysfunction and 32.8% of them had severe depression. Area of the beedi workers had significant influence over somatic symptoms, where respondents from Udayagiri expressed highest somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction and severe depression too. Respondents from Kesare expressed lesser GHQ symptoms of somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction and severe depression.