Work and Workplace Interventions for Enhancing Comfort and Productivity of Workers for Making Bead Products
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Date
2019
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Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
Work and workplace are the crucial parameters for determining the work capacity,
productivity and efficiency of the worker in any enterprise. Mangali village of Haryana is known for
bead making, a livelihood for more than 70 % of households where all the family members are
involved in various activities of bead making. However, women’s involvement is higher in making
beads and string (mala) making sold at minimal rates. Work and workplace improvement was needed
to prevent worker from physical risk factors and enhance productivity for which training of women
workers is required. Hence, the study had been planned with the objectives to investigate the work
profile of women for making bead products and their hazards assessment along with providing
interventions to improve the work and workplace and studying the impact of interventions on change in
skill, safety and productivity. 50 women respondents involved in bead activities were assessed for
workplace and related hazards. Further 30 women were provided with 8 months of training-cumworkshops
for value addition of products made from beads along with the workplace improvement for
which a floor sitting workstation had been designed. Significant analysis of variance (ANOVA) was
observed among work profile and socio-economic variables of respondents and various hazards were
identified. Workstation designed was found highly feasible, acceptable and significantly correlated
with the socio-economic conditions of the respondents. Knowledge was found to be increased with
significant t-values on various parameters along with skill and high symbolic adoption scores for 50 %
of the respondents. Based on the adoption scores, 5 women were further selected for comfort, safety
and productivity analysis. Comfort was measured on ergonomic parameters with correction in
environmental conditions, reduction in grip fatigue (18.75%), reduction in overall angular deviation of
body parts (36.1%), improvement in OWAS and WERA scores for body postures, improved BPDS
(48.1%), VAD scores (62.18%), reduction in exertion through BORG ( ‘very strong’ to ‘moderate’)
and job strain index (‘hazardous’ to ‘safe’). Safety had been provided for work and workplace activities
along with a productive benefit-to-cost ratio of 1.7. Higher development for income generation could
be brought with proper entrepreneurial techniques as the skill and knowledge has already been
provided to women with higher efficiency. Recommendations and implications of the study were being
provided for future developments among women and to generate a sustainable livelihood with similar
works.