Vol. 11, Special Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Deepak, KV Jamuna and K Shivaramu

Abstract:
Kalaburagi district is major pulse producing and processing district of Karnataka and it is well known as Pulse bowl of Karnataka, having 308 registered dal mill units in the district operating at various capacities. Dal mill workers in mills are exposed to dal dust linked with several occupational health hazards. Therefore, the present study was conducted to assess knowledge level about occupational health hazards faced, use of safety measures and food consumption by workers in dal mill industries. “Teacher made test” was used to measure the knowledge level of 30 dal mill workers that is intervention group about use of safety measures and nutrition practice, which consisted of 30 questions related to knowledge level. The results showed that majority of the workers belonged to age group of 25 to 35 years (46.3%), most of them belonged to Hindu religion (93.6%) and 78.7 per cent of the respondents were married and belonged to joint family (56.3%). Half of the mill workers (54.3%) were living in pucca house and majority (81.7%) of the workers income were between 10,002 – 29,972 belonged to upper lower and lower middle class. Pertaining to knowledge level higher percentage of dal mill workers belonged to medium knowledge category 36.67 per cent followed by in low 33.33 per cent and high knowledge category 30.00 per cent. This indicates that some of the workers had medium level of knowledge regarding safety measures, food, nutrition and health before the nutrition education. After the intervention respondents who were in the low-level category increased their knowledge level. Out of 10 respondents 7 moved to higher knowledge category after intervention. It was increased from 30 per cent to 53.30 per cent. This indicates that the nutrition education had a better impact on the mill workers knowledge regarding the use of safety measures and good nutritional knowledge.