A systematic review of construction workers’ health and safety research in India

Abstract

Purpose

Construction workers’ health and safety (CWHS) research in India has not gained much attention among researchers. This study aims to review articles related to CWHS research in India using a science mapping approach.

Design/methodology/approach

A total number of 64 journal articles published between 2004 and 2019 were extracted from the Scopus database using keywords including “construction safety,” “occupational health,” “ergonomics in construction,” etc. VOSviewer software was used to examine the influential keywords, documents, sources and authors in the field of CWHS.

Findings

The study found that most of the current work focuses on safety management, safety climate, safety performance, musculoskeletal disorders and behavior-based safety. The result indicates no theoretical basis for the theories and learning methods for the existing studies.

Practical implications

The findings open up a research gap that researchers explore to enhance workers’ health and safety within the Indian construction environment.

Originality/value

The paper is the first article to provide a better understanding of current research in the field of CWHS in India by analyzing its growth through the science mapping approach.

Citation

Chellappa, V., Srivastava, V. and Salve, U.R. (2021), "A systematic review of construction workers’ health and safety research in India", Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, Vol. 19 No. 6, pp. 1488-1504. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEDT-08-2020-0345