Types of Industry

There are different types of industry such as foundry industries, engineering industries, textile industries, agricultural industries, and petrochemical industries. The types of industry are exposure to different occupational risk which may influence the level of employee’s awareness on the health benefits.

Padmasundari and Selly (2016) have investigated the relationships between the types of industry and the level of awareness among the unorganized engineering workers in Coimbatore. The researchers had using the stratified random sampling and statistical tools such as frequency distribution, percentage analysis and cross tabulation in the study. The researchers found out those foundry employees have higher level of awareness on health insurance scheme as compare to the engineering employees. This is because the foundry industry is exposure to higher risk which supported by SheikAllavudeen and Sankar (2015). They revealed that foundry industry is exposure to high risk due to the hazardous operations. Therefore, Padmasundari and Selly (2016) suggested that the government should organize a health awareness programs to those unorganized engineering workers which aim to increase their level of health awareness.

Apart from that, the study of Savitha and Sangamithra (2013) indicated a same result with Padmasundari and Selly (2016). Sample sizes of 1500 employees from Coimbatore were involved in the research and the findings are collected by predefined questionnaire and convenient sampling method.

The findings were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Logistic Regression Model (LRM). The researchers indicated that the foundry employees have shown higher probability of

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awareness on the health insurance as compare to the textile employees. The study of Vanithamani (2013) also indicated the same results with Savitha and Sangamithra (2013).

Moreover, a study was carried out in the state of Uganda, Africa to explore the level of employees’ awareness on occupational health and safety from the agricultural industries. According to Lunner-Kolstrup and Ssali (2016), there was a low level of awareness on occupational health among the agricultural employees in Uganda through their qualitative, small-scale, cross-sectional study by using the semi-structured interviews and transect walks. From the research, researchers found that most of the agricultural employees were illiterate and these situations are common in many development countries. This is because they did not have any occupational knowledge which provided by their employer. Therefore, it will lead them exposure to the higher occupational risk.

On the other hand, industrial workers have more aware on the healthcare benefits because the high risk present in their working environment which then may affect their health. This was supported by the Sharma and Singh (2013). The researchers revealed that the skilled workers have high level of awareness about the social security benefits as compared to unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Besides, the Mangasuli and Sherkhane (2016) also have the same study results. Their study on the awareness of woman workers on utilizes the social welfare and healthcare schemes among the beedi worker and non-beedi worker in India. The beedi industry is the largest tobacco based industry in India which has been classified as unorganized sector that under the small scale and cottage industry sector. The researchers collected the data from 200 women worker which the 100 worker from the beedi industry and 100 worker from the non beedi industry by using the systematic random sampling method and pretested questionnaire. Also, by using the SPSS software, descriptive statistics and Chi square test, the researchers found out that the beedi workers were more aware and have high

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utilize the social welfare and healthcare schemes as compare with the non beedi worker. This is because their aware the nature of working environment was higher risk than non beedi worker.

However, the result in the research by Sudina, Ansuya and Lakra (2015) were different with the result done by Mangasuli and Sherkhane (2016).

Sudina et al. (2015) showed that there is a lack of awareness on health and social welfare benefits among the beedi workers. The researchers also mentioned that the low awareness of beedi workers on the health and social welfare benefits leads to affect their health and quality of life. This is because most of the beedi workers do not have a good knowledge on the availability of benefits provided by government. Therefore, the researchers recommended that there is needs of the periodic education in order to increase the awareness of beedi worker on utilize the health and social welfare benefits.

Additionally, Campbell, Owoka and Odugbemi (2016) were also support the Sudina et al., (2015) with the views that the low level of awareness among the informal sector workers on national health insurance scheme (NHIS) is because the poor knowledge on its benefits. Furthermore, there was also low awareness on the availability of the Community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes among the informal sector workers. This is because the poor knowledge on the basic concepts of CBHI leads to low participation in this scheme (Noubiap, Joko, Obama, and Bigna, 2013).

Thus, the researchers recommended that government should take initiatives on organizing an awareness campaign or programs to informal sector workers for improving coverage of the scheme (Nyorera and Okibo, 2015).

Another study of Yang (2013) also revealed that the industrial workers in the small enterprises do not have high awareness on the labour insurance benefits, although there is a present of high risk working environment. The labour insurance benefits which included medical care benefits, injury and

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sickness benefits, and disability benefits for occupational injuries and disease. The researcher was distributed the questionnaires to total 251 participants for small enterprises, large enterprise and general public in Hualien, Taiwan. The small enterprises include self-employed, temporary, agricultural, fishing, and informal sector workers. While the large enterprises are workers from the government owned Power Company and the general public represent the people who participated in a health promotion activity. The researcher proposed that there should have a regular education programs in order to raise the awareness on the labour insurance benefits.

Besides, the formal sector workers were having the high level of awareness on health scheme that provided by government. This was supported by the Adewole, Dairo and Bolarinwa (2016). The researchers stated that majority formal sectors workers were aware on the NHIS, but there was a low level of coverage on the scheme. Also, Kansra and Gill (2016) revealed that there was a low level of awareness on the health insurance scheme among the informal sector workers. Hence, this showed that the formal sector workers will have high awareness on health scheme as compare with informal sector.

In addition, the government health insurance policy will also influence the employee’s awareness and utilization on the health benefits. This was supported by the Sachin and Punith (2014), they stated that some of the employees who are not utilize the government health insurance benefits is because the benefits can be claimed only from the specific hospitals.

Rashida (2015) also discovered that even though majority of the industrial workers are aware of the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) scheme, but majority industrial workers does not satisfy with the ESI scheme. This is because the lack of medical facility and bottlenecks in procedure when their getting this benefit. Thus, it influences their utilization on the scheme.

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