Health Care Expenditure of Coal Mine Workers: A Case Study in West Bengal

In recent years attention has been increasingly drawn to environmental problems caused by industrial and consumption activities. While theoretical and empirical literature has focused on mainly externalities generated by such activities, the effects of production on the workers may also be significant. Such health hazards are prominent in labour-intensive industries like gem cutting, limestone and mining. In this paper the focus is on the coal industry. The nature of coal mining is such that one would expect that the workers engaged in the mining process suffer from various ailments. This paper seeks to examine the magnitude of the burden in terms of health care expenditure caused by such hazards. The authors also seek to identify the factors determining the health care expenditure on workers. The work is based on a survey of three coal mines (using three different types of extraction technologies) in the state of West Bengal, India.