A study on rural kitchen: An ergonomic approach to work center
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Date
2017-11
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Abstract
Kitchen work is considered as the primary work area of women and most of their
time spent in doing kitchen work. The home maker is the predominant figure in the home and
household work is an indispensable part of the home maker. As Kitchen work is done mostly
by females and it puts a lot of strain on them especially when working in a kitchen which is
not ergonomically designed. The study initiated with concerns and questions that exist for
health and safety of women working in different types of kitchen. Anthropometric
consideration plays a crucial role in improving the efficiency of a person. The study entitled
“A study on rural kitchen: An ergonomic approach to work center”; was taken up keeping in
mind the above facts. For this study information was elicited by questionnaire cum interview
method from 90 rural women who are actively involved in kitchen work of Cuttack district.
Measuring tape was used for taking anthropometric measurements, height and depth of
cupboard, work and sink center. Various body dimensions such as height, elbow height,
horizontal reach/side arm reach and vertical grip reach of respondents were measured and 5th,
50th and 95th percentiles of the data obtained were computed using statistical packages. The
findings of the study revealed that majority (88.88%) respondents possessed close compact,
standing type kitchen (90%) with L-shape (60.49%) and few had sitting type kitchen
(39.50%). Almost all the rural kitchen are of pucca type and the average height and depth of
work and sink centre was observed to be 82.41 cm, 55.18 cm, 82.48 cm and 22.65 cm
respectively, which are not according to the anthropometric measurements of the respondents.
Mean height of tom shelf from floor level in built-in cupboard both in wall cabinet and above
counter was 220.30 cm and 216.32 cm respectively, which are also not ergonomically sound.
Lack of awareness about labour saving devices (32.22%), insufficient storage space in kitchen
(48.88%), small size and restricted work place (36.66%) in the kitchen are the major
constrains always faced by the rural women. As per the study findings, it seems that many
rural kitchens are not ergonomically sound. This suggests that there is a need to create
awareness among kitchen users regarding functional requirement of kitchen.
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