Physiological stress on women at work: ergonomic consideration

Abstract

In developing countries like India women are most silent participants in economic life and also an important work force in agriculture and allied fields. Their contribution in Indian agriculture is estimated to be 50-60 % (Anon, 1981). Besides being involved in household chores, they attend to arduous field operations like sowing, transplanting, weeding, interculturing, harvesting, threshing and agro-processing in crop production, fuel and fodder cutting, water fetching, cleaning of houses, cooking, child-rearing in household maintenance and dairying/animal husbandry in allied fields. The majority of these activities, which are full of drudgery have not been supported by the mechanical advantages of tool and appliances. Moreover most of the work studies are directed towards the measurements of external forces and time spent in work. To ensure better health and safety and safety and to improve work efficiency and to reduce the drudgery of women it is important to have an understanding of the occupational workload of farm women by studying the efficiency and power of their muscles, heart, energy expenditure, their fatigability, which could be assessed through physiological parameters by assessing heart rate and by estimating energy expenditure of some drudgery prone activities the rural women perform in farms, homes and in allied fields. Hence a study was conducted in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttaranchal to assess the heart rate, energy expenditure and perceived exertion for some of drudgery prone activities in home, farm and allied areas.