Asian Resonance Ergonomic Evaluation for Dung Collection and Transportation by Rural Women (original) (raw)
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In India, nearly 50-60 per cent of women work force is engaged in agriculture. Systematic efforts to evaluate the energy expenditure of female labourers are generally non-existent in this region. The physiological response of women labourers while performing the rice farming operations such as harvesting with sickle, harvesting with self propelled harvester, threshing by hand and threshing with mini thresher at different time intervals i.e., before 9 am and after 11 am in a day were investigated. Psychophysical measurement technique was used to quantify the overall discomfort as well as body part discomfort. Nine subjects conforming to the statistical requirements of anthropometric dimensions were selected for the study. The maximum energy cost was observed to be 20.58 kJ min for harvesting with sickle, whereas for harvesting with self propelled harvester, this value was observed to be 17.93 kJ min-1. Harvesting after 11 am resulted in 18% more energy expenditure than harvesting bef...
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2020
Agricultural operations mostly done by women agricultural workers. In India 50-60% of women force is engaged in agriculture. Ergonomical parameters like working heart rate, oxygen consumption rate, energy expenditure rate of women workers were evaluated in different selected agriculture operation. The average working heart rate and oxygen consumption rate obtained were evaluated respectively for weeding by Ambika paady weeder and hand weeding, harvesting by serrated sickle and traditional sickle, threshing by paddy thresher and hand beating operation and also for winnowing operation. The mean EER were 9.3kJ/min, 9.9kJ/min, 8.8kJ/min, 9.5kJ/min, 7.5kJ/min, 9.5kJ/min, 8.6 kJ/min, and 9.3kJ/min for the above operations. Out of these operations weeding operation requires more effort and can be categorized as ‘Moderate heavy’ type of operation and threshing by paddy thresher was require less effort and categorized as ‘Light’ type of operation due to pattern of work.
Load Carrying Pattern of Rural Women
People all over world adopt different patterns for carrying load. Purpose of this study was to study the load lifting as well as carrying pattern of the rural women in Villages of Haryana in India. For conducting the study, a total of 100 rural women were selected from two villages namely Siaharwa and Dewan of Hisar district of Haryana. They were interviewed and observed for the pattern they adopt for transportation of different materials. Results revealed that dung was carried for more than once a day by almost all of them (98%) whereas fodder was carried for once a day by higher majority of them. The lifting posture was ergonomically bad as 92 percent of them lifted load by bending their back. Most of the times (97%) they used to hold the load by both the hands raised above shoulder level whereas 88 percent reported that they used to carry the load by holding it with alternate hands followed by carrying the load without holding it (18%). A higher majority (97%) needed somebody’s assistance in lifting the load from ground to their head whereas while landing, mostly they used to drop the load directly from their head. Indi was generally used for carrying water whereas for fuel and dry fodder they were making a cloth ring on the spot as per the size and comfort of their head. Head strap was used by 18 percent of the respondents generally for carrying fodder which may lead to the grooved skulls. Keywords: Load, Posture, Fodder, Dung, Indi, Head strap.
The Pharma Innovation Journal, 2021
In rice cultivation, post-harvest activities are essential for the preparation of rice. Mainly females are engaged in post harvesting tasks and they perform a sequential work through manual efforts. The present study was aimed to evaluate occupational health hazards, musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) and Body parts discomfort (BPD) of farm women during performing the post-harvest activity i.e uploading of paddy grains for storage. A study on ergonomic evaluation of uploading of paddy grain activity by farm women using conventional and improved method was conducted in Jorhat district of Assam. Thirty women workers were made to perform uploading of paddy grain activity by conventional and improved method. The results revealed that the use of improved technology i.e paddy grain picker reduces health hazards of farm women i.e. cuts and wounds, reduces Body parts discomfort (BPD) and increases the comfort and work efficiency of the farm women when compared with conventional method of uploading of paddy grains.
An ergonomic evaluation of pedal operated paddy thresher for farm women
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Traditional paddy threshing is a labour intensive operation and mostly carried out by farm women in awkward posture. In this study, the performance of pedal operated paddy thresher was evaluated with 12 farm women and compared with traditional method, i.e. manual beating of paddy on wooden log. The mean working HR in pedal operated paddy thresher was found to be 134 beats/min, whereas it was 141 beats/min by traditional method. The corresponding work pulse (ΔHR) was 51 beats/min. The energy expenditure rate (EER) was 17.71 kJ/min with the use of paddy thresher whereas traditional method it was recorded as 19.34 kJ/min. It was observed that there was 20% increase in output with paddy thresher. The total cardiac cost of work (TCCW) and physiological cost of work (PCW) in paddy thresher was recorded as 1662 and 55, respectively. The reduction in drudgery was observed about 43% as compared to traditional method. The pedal operated paddy thresher is an improved and convenient technology ...
Ergonomic interventions in weeding operations for drudgery reduction of hill farm women of India
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Weeding is an important time consuming and drudgery prone task mainly performed by hill farm women for almost all crops grown. This directs for interventions in terms of improved technologies (weeder, kutla and hoes) to relieve women from high energy demands, time spent and associated drudgery particularly for weeding activity. The study was conducted in two hill states of India viz. Himachal Pradesh (35 villages and 1500 representative samples) and Uttrakhand (10 villages and 500 representative samples). Experimental data were conducted on representative sub sample of 60 hill farm women of both states to assess physiological workload and musculo-skeletal problems both while working with traditional tools along with improved tools by employing selected parameters viz. physical fitness level, physiological parameters etc. The results showed that heart rate values were more than acceptable limits for task performed with the traditional tools as compared with improved tools. Significant reduction in the heart rate was observed while working with improved tools. Analysis of MSDs showed that the postural stress and severity of pain in various body parts was reduced by adopting new technology. Hence, the use of improved weeding tools is recommended over the existing ones for drudgery reduction.
Ergonomic Evaluation of Hand Operated Maize Sheller for Reducing Drudgery of Farm Women in Bihar
Journal of AgriSearch, 2021
Maize shelling is one of the tedious and time-consuming agricultural operations. To reduce the drudgery of farm women involved in maize shelling, a hand-held octagonal maize sheller (OMS) tool was introduced. The OMS tool was evaluated for its impact on human health and shelling efficiency. An ergonomic study of the OMS tool was carried out with farm women as subjects for evaluation. Various ergonomic and technical performance parameters were assessed for two types of shelling viz. hand shelling and shelling using OMS tool. The results revealed that the OMS tool and hand shelling recorded an output of 23.71 and 8.87 kg/h, respectively. The cardiac cost per unit of output worked out was 69.73 and 287.09 beats/kg for OMS tool and hand shelling, respectively. Compared to hand shelling, the OMS tool reduced drudgery by 75.71%. Overall discomfort rating was 1.58 and 2.12 while the body part discomfort score was 21.27 and 30.41 for OMS tool and hand shelling, respectively. Adoption of OMS...
BIOMECHANICS OF CARRYING FUELWOOD BY WOMEN IN RURAL AREAS
The present study is focused on biomechanics of carrying fuel wood on the head by rural women since they carry too heavy bundles on their head and walk for several kilometres daily. The present study had been conducted to access the biomechanical stress faced by them in carrying the fuel wood on their head. An ergonomic assessment was done for the collection of fuel wood by the selected 10 rural women having permissible limit of physiological parameters to assess the work related discomfort faced by them. They were observed while carrying fuelwood and the required informations were recorded. The stress on musculoskeletal system was assessed in terms of grip fatigue and musculoskeletal discomfort of body parts using Grip dynamometer, flexicurve, Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), Ovako working posture assessment (OWAS), Visual Analogue Discomfort (VAD) scale and Human Body Map. Results revealed that among the three stages of head loading i.e., load lifting, carrying and landing, load carrying was most strenuous. The body parts being most affected were lower back, mid back, head, neck and upper arms. Hence, there was an urgent need to develop a solution for carrying fuel wood on a difficult terrain. Keywords: Biomechanics; fuelwood; headload; stress; women.
Development and ergonomic assessment of women friendly stirrup hoe
Journal of AgriSearch, 2022
A field experiment was conducted during Rabi season at ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region to evaluate stirrup hoe for intercultural operation in maize crop (Zea mays L.). The mean values of age, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), lean body mass (LBM), body surface area (BSA) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) of the subjects were 37.83 years, 51.67 kg, 152.50 cm, 22.20 kg/m 2 , 1.36 m 2 and 1233.98 kcal/day, respectively. The mean of heart rate (HR), energy expenditure rate (EER) and oxygen consumption rate (OCR) during operation of stirrup hoe and khurpi were 113.08 and 97.13 beats/min, 9.26 and 6.72 kJ min −1 and 0.61 and 0.43 l/min. Weeding efficiency, plant injury and effective field capacity for stirrup hoe were 84.57%, 1.85% and 0.007 ha/hr whereas, for khurpi these were 96.95%, 0.74% and 0.002 ha/hr. The cost of operation of khurpi was 3.5 times costlier than stirrup hoe. The body part discomfort score (BPDS) of stirrup hoe was 26.8 whereas that of khurpi was 20.8.
In India women labour constitute a major role in the construction industry and it was found that most of the female were engaged in head load carrying activity. So a study was conducted to assess the ergonomic parameter for their WMSDs among 30 female labourers involved in carrying cement mixture on their head. They belonged to age group of 20-40 years with 8-10 years of work experience. It was found that after carrying the head load, highly significant increase was observed in pulse rate (27.9 b.min-1), HR (32.7 b.min-1), EE (6.4 kJ.min-1). Oxygen uptake volumes of respondents were found to be decreased after the work. On the basis of RPE, load carrying was perceived as moderately heavy activity (3.7) Grip strength of right hand (19.7%) as well as left hand (15.4%) was reduced after performing the activity. Deviation in spinal angle in terms of lumbar region was 2.7 percent (exterior posterior) and cervical region by 3.1 percent (anterior posterior) was observed during carrying the load on head. This study also revealed that women workers had to work in a very high temperature, humid weather, dirt etc. so that they suffered many health problems due to unsuitable work place environmental parameters.