Kalaburagi district is a major pulse producing and processing district of Karnataka and it is well known as Pulse bowl of Karnataka, having 308 registered dal mill units operating at various capacities. Dal mill workers in mills are exposed to dal dust linked with developing multiple morbidities. Therefore, the present study focuses to assess socioeconomic, nutritional status and occupational related morbidities among the dal mill workers. 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 tojoint family (56.3 ). Half of the mill workers (54.3 ) were living in pucca house and belonged to upper lower and lower middle class (79.3 and 20.7 ).The mean height and weight of the mill workers were 170.6 cm and 65.9 kg, respectively. Majority (82.6 ) of the subjects had normal body mass index (BMI) of 22.6 kg / m~2. Half of the mill workers (58 ) were not using the protective measures during milling activities. They were suffering from musculoskeletal problems like pain in the hand and legs (72.3 ), back ache (68.3 ), body ache (69.6 ) and pain in the shoulder (57.3 ). Most of the respondents expressed that they always suffered from cold, cough and eye strain due to dust that is 53.3 per cent, 50.6 per cent and 72.3 per cent, respectively. Among dal mill workers 44.5 per cent of the workers also expressed that they had respiratory problems. Therefore, it is necessary to protect workers from dal dust exposure by implementing reduction and control methods and also through health awareness programmes.
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