Assessment of postural discomfort and physiological workload of farm workers of northern India

Abstract

In India, particularly the rural population is primarily associated with the rice cultivation activity. They are compelled to carry out a considerable number of manual, rigorous tasks in puddle fields. The main aim of this study was to investigate postures adopted by female agricultural workers during manual uprooting and transplanting activities and to analyze the causes of discomfort related to those postures. Twenty female agricultural workers were randomly selected from Kalinagar village of U.S. Nagar, District of Uttarakhand state and a detailed posture analysis was performed with the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS). It was observed that those workers worked continuously in awkward postures during uprooting and transplanting activities. Consequently they suffered from problem of high physiological workload, human drudgery and physiological stress. They were likely to suffer from serious musculoskeletal disorders in the future.