Occupational Zoonotic Risk at India's Human-Animal Interface: Statutory Origins and a Regulatory Pathway for the Compensation-Prevention Disconnect

Abstract

India's workforce at the human–animal interface represents one of the world's largest occupationally-exposed populations, yet operates without enforceable biological hazard protections. A statutory analysis of India's consolidated labor codes identifies a critical compensation–prevention disconnect: zoonotic diseases are recognized as compensable conditions under the Code on Social Security (2020), while the industries generating these exposures are excluded from the “hazardous process” classifications of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (2020) that trigger mandatory prevention. This bifurcation is a product of administrative logic: social insurance scales to the informal economy, while traditional inspection-based compliance does not. The resulting disease burden is quantifiable and specific. Seroprevalence evidence across nine zoonoses confirms sustained, preventable exposure: brucellosis at 15.8% among animal handlers, leptospirosis at 46.3% in high-risk agricultural workers, and avian influenza H9N2 at 6.2% among poultry workers. This workforce represents an unmonitored sentinel population at the human-animal interface—precisely where early signals of zoonotic spillover would appear first and, in the absence of any surveillance mandate, go undetected. Despite these gaps, the existing statutory framework contains the executive authority to resolve the disconnect. Executive notification under the OSH Code can activate employer duties in the formal sector. For the informal majority, constitutional and statutory mandates establish a State duty of care, deliverable through India's digital public infrastructure (DPI) and existing public health financing. This framework offers a replicable model for low- and middle-income countries to convert occupational biosecurity from a compensation liability into a prevention entitlement.