Urbanisation has increased occupational hazards: Governor

Urbanisation has increased occupational hazards: Governor

Special Correspondent

Stressful lifestyle diseases are affecting a large percentage of population

Only 10 to 15 per cent of workforce has access to basic healthcare facility

Need to concentrate on the health of the workforce stressed

BANGALORE: Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Monday expressed concern that fast changing lifestyle and various kinds of stress associated with it have changed the pattern of diseases in urban areas.

Inaugurating a workshop on workers’ health organised by the Commonwealth Association for Mental Handicap and Developmental Disabilities (CAMHADD) Trisector Preventive Health Care Foundation in Bangalore, Mr. Thakur said rapid urbanisation and industrialisation have caused a considerable increase in occupational hazards such as back-ache, respiratory illness among other things. Stressful lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and smoking were affecting a large percentage of population including young people in urban areas.

He observed that though stress, tension and pressure affect the rich and the poor alike, it was the poor and the middle class people who remain outside the purview of medical treatment for various reasons.

The former Chief Secretary A. Ravindra, who is also chairperson for Citizens’ Forum-Bangalore Healthy City Initiative, said the Bangalore Healthy City Initiative was being implemented from 2003 with technical support from the World Health Organisation to focus on health promotion and preventive measures. Under this initiative, Preventive Health Centres had been set up in Bangalore for pourakarmikas in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, employees of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Karnataka State Reserve Police. These centres take up regular health check-up besides follow-up action like medical treatment. Dr. Ravindra pointed out that only 10 to 15 per cent of workforce has access to basic health care facility in the country. There was a dire need to concentrate on the health of the workforce as a healthy workforce was a must for the nation’s development, he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Rashtriya Shikshana Samithi Trust president M.K. Panduranga Setty said the trust would set up a 250-bed hospital to focus on the preventive health care of those from lower income groups.