7 Most Stressful Jobs In India

If you are looking to find out the most stressful jobs in India and did a Google search, you might have noticed that all of the results presented on the first page of Google were about the most or least stressful jobs in America. Even the articles published by Indian websites and news organizations are talking about the most stressful jobs in America. Obviously Google hasn’t done a good job of identifying sites that highlight the most stressful jobs in India. Hopefully you will like our answer better.

Through this research, I found that Indian women are particularly stressed because of juggling numerous roles at home and work. So when you see a stressful job in our list, you should keep in mind that this job is more stressful if it is held by a woman rather than a man. Even though job opportunities in India for women are becoming ubiquitous, family responsibilities and social pressure towards women in India are still there. The highest stress level is among women between the ages of 25 and 55, who are trying to balance duties at home with formidable careers.

Now, imagine stress in India, the second most populous country in the world. Despite economic growth during recent years, India continues to face social and economical challenges. Unclear or conflicting job expectations, inadequate staffing (lack of support) are the main reasons for stress at workplace in India so let’s try to pinpoint the 7 most stressful jobs in India. Here is what Towers Watson says about the sources of stress in India:

“When quizzed on sources of stress, Indian employees rank unclear or conflicting job expectations (40%), inadequate staffing (lack of support, uneven workload or performance in group) (38%) and lack of work/life balance (38%) as the top three reasons according to Towers Watson’s Global Benefit Attitudes Survey that polled 22,347 global workers out of which 7,094 workers are in Asia Pacific (2006 workers are based in India)”.

Since we weren’t able to find any credible sources for the most stressful jobs in India, we decided to identify the jobs that have the highest injury and death rates in India. Searching dangerous jobs in India brought up numerous articles about  shipbreaking accidents, primarily in Bangladesh. Dismantling out of date vessels is lucrative for ship companies. But, for shipbreaking workers, their jobs are not only stressful but also very dangerous. Poor working terms such as cheap labor costs, bad safety and health laws, contribute significantly to the stress level of these jobs. Fortunately, some organisations are seeking to prevent dangerous conditions in shipbreaking industry. They are hoping to team up with government and make sure clean and safe ship recycling.

Furthermore, one of search results presented was the most dangerous jobs in India. They enlisted astronauts, sanitation workers, mountain guides, military personnel, fishermen, firefighters, film stuntmen, coal miners, bomb squads and bodyguards. We combined these results with independent academic research done on stress levels in certain industries to create our list of the 7 most stressful jobs in India.

If you are the type of person who thrives under pressure or can stay calm in high-stress situations, these jobs may be perfect for you.

7. Banking workers

According to Financial Times, banking, finance, and information technology are among the most stressful jobs in India. Position of Investment Banker is  particularly in jeopardy of stress because of lack of time for social life, proper eating and overtime work. Sleep deprivation, exhaustion and poor public image are not helping either. Here is what FT said:

“In sectors like banking, finance and information technology, many Indian companies are looking to yoga and other techniques rooted in ancient Indian traditions to help their harried workforce better cope with the physical and mental strains of their jobs and India’s stressful urban living.”

6. Finance workers

The responsibilities, pressures that are both internal and external, as well as late working hours create a stressful environment for finance workers. Particularly, the trader position can trigger needle-like stress. Traders are not in control of their work schedule due to market hours, and constant stream of information that may cause market disruptions keep the traders on edge and contribute to their stress levels.

5. IT workers

Uncompensated overtime, missed social functions due to overshoot issues and tight deadlines are main reasons for stress among IT workers. Calls in the middle of the night, angry users and unexpected problems only increase stress levels. That is why many IT companies provide yoga courses for helping workers to reduce stress level.

4. Anesthesiologists

We decided to include anesthesiologists in our rankings of the most stressful jobs in India based on the findings of this study. Burnout, lack of sleep and late working hours are main reasons for stress among anesthesiologists in India. It may lead to exhaustion related errors. Here is an excerpt from the study:

“Studies related to stress in Indian anaesthesiologists are very limited, which prompted us to design this study not only to identify the stressors but also to find out how anaesthesiologists react to stress and devise means to minimize it….Identified stressors were as follows: time constraints (34%), medicolegal concerns (24%), interference with home life (22%), clinical problems (20%), and communication problems (9%).”

3. Police officers

Not only they are witnessing crime scenes, but police officers can be also a victims because they are in danger due to their nature of work. They are the first line of defense, and they are prone to vengeance because of the criminals that they arrest. Blood vendetta in India is still a problem in this country. This academic study supports our rankings:

“Police work tends to impose a high degree of stress and a multiplicity of stressful situations which can affect the physical, mental and interpersonal relationships of police personnel. This research tries to study the reasons leading to stress among Grade III police in Tuticorin District and also aims in analysis the demographical factors of police personnel and their influence in the occupational stress.”

2. Construction workers

We found another academic study that pinpointed high fatalities among construction workers.

“In the past two decades, India has witnessed rapid urbanization, motorization, industrialization and migration of people resulting from socioeconomic growth and development. With mechanization and revolution in technology, traditional ways of living and working are being altered. Injuries are a major public health problem in India. Lack of reliable and good quality national or regional data has thwarted their recognition. The present study is a retrospective study conducted at St. Johns Medical College. All the Autopsied cases of Occupational deaths which occurred from 2001-2010 over a period of 10 years were studied and analysed. When a year wise percentage of fatalities was analysed, in year 2007 had a significantly high fatalities. It was found that significant increase in death was found to be in Manual construction labourers of migratory population at evening time due to Shock and Haemorrhage.”

1. Miners

The most stressful and dangerous job in India is mining. According to official sources a death occurs in the mining industry once every three days. Here is an excerpt from that source that summarizes the situation:

“Alongside ship-breaking, mining has the distinction of being the most dangerous profession in India, as is the case in a number of developing economies such as China and Brazil. But, while the trend of fatal accidents and fatality rates per thousand persons employed at a ten-yearly average in India is declining, the absolute numbers of fatal accidents and fatalities are on the rise.

Industry insiders, including senior officers employed by the world’s largest coal miner, state-owned Coal India Ltd, concede that official numbers could be much lower than the actual deaths that take place deep inside the mines.”