Leisure as a way of coping with stress: an ethnographic study of the low-income construction workers

This article tries to reveal the lived experiences of stress amongst site construction workers and their coping mechanism through leisure in a small construction company of eastern India from the state of Jharkhand. Qualitative methods have been used to collect the data using ethnography and photo-elicitation methods. Discussion with the participants led to the emergence of two themes: (1) work demand and stress and (2) leisure experiences as a coping mechanism. The research findings indicate that physically demanding nature of the job coupled with heavy work load was a major cause which led to the development of stress amongst site construction workers. Subsequently, they were found to be adopting different leisure activities as a coping mechanism for their stress. Based on the study findings, there is an imperative that the societal forerunners and philanthropists continue to use research findings to understand the level of stress prevailing amongst the construction workers and their various stress-coping mechanisms to improve their condition.