Borah, RuplekhaDevi, Manorama2020-12-282020-12-282020-05https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810157445Ergonomic assessment of risk factors is one of the starting points to address the problem of work-related occupational stress. The rural women participate in a broad range of agricultural activities such as production, processing, preservation and utilization of food. In the case of vegetable cultivation, they play a key role in the entire vegetable cultivation process starting from land preparation to harvesting of vegetable crop. The present study was designed with four objectives: (1) To study the activity profile of female workers in vegetable cultivation, (2) To identify work-related health hazards experienced by the female workers, (3) To assess the prevalence of ergonomic risk factors in vegetable cultivation among female workers, and (4) To evolve suitable ergonomic measures to enhance comfort and productivity of the female workers. To conduct the study the North West Development Block of Jorhat district was selected purposively. Four villages namely Upper Deuri, Hokai Khangia, Bormer Chapori and Sonari No. 2 of North West Development Block in Jorhat district of Assam were selected. The study was conducted on 300 female workers who are actively engaged in all the activities of vegetable cultivation starting from land preparation to harvesting of vegetables. Both interview and experimental methods were followed to collect information. Modified Nordic questionnaire and body part discomfort scale were used as tools to collect information. To assess the risk factors 10 per cent from the total sample was selected, who were actively involved in all the activities of vegetable cultivation contributing 5-6 hours a day. RULA and OWAS techniques were for postural assessment; repetition was assessed by using Wiley et al. (1996) standard scale and exertion was measured by following Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. Personal and demographic characteristics of female workers revealed that 60.33 per cent of the respondents were from the age group of 30-40 years. Majority (65.67%) of the respondents body height falls in the category of 151-155 cm and 70 per cent of the respondents body weight was in between 41-50 kg. Most of the respondents (70.67%) were having ‗mesomorph‘ body type and normal BMI. In case of caste, majority (40.33%) of the respondents were other backward class. 62 per cent of the respondents family occupation was agriculture. It was observed that land preparation (30.66%) was performed ―partially‖ by the female workers; while other tasks of vegetable cultivation such as removing of stalks and stubbles (72%), sowing (82.67%), transplanting (100%), weeding (100%), spreading of manure (100%) and harvesting (86.67%) were performed 7 ―fully‖ and irrigation (100) was performed ―rarely‖ which indicates this activity is performed by male workers. Age and years of involvement of the respondents were found to be highly significant with their extent of participation while BMI was found to have insignificant with the extent of participation of female workers in vegetable cultivation. Majority of the respondents were found to be involved in vegetable cultivation from 5-15 years. Work-rest pattern indicated that the total working time for weeding and harvesting was 8.29 hours and 8.47 hours in a day respectively, and total rest was 2.19 hours and 2.21 hours for both weeding and harvesting. Squatting and bending postures were adopted mostly by the workers in performing majority of the activities. The level of discomfort in weeding and harvesting is severe. Assessment of body part discomfort revealed that weeding and harvesting had intolerant pain in hand. The MPI (Mazziotta Pareto Index) indicates that majority (54.67%) of the respondents experienced moderate work related health hazards and 45.33 per cent of the respondents experienced severe work related health hazards. RULA score in ‗weeding and harvesting‘ were found to be the level (3-4) and (5-6) respectively which means change may be needed in the postures and work methods of weeding and immediate change is required in harvesting. OWAS score indicated that work posture in harvesting was found to have an extremely harmful effect on musculoskeletal system and immediate solution should be found to solve the posture (action level IV). Harvesting and weeding operations were found to be ‗highly repetitive‘ in nature as the cycle time obtained was within 30 seconds. Rating of perceived exertion indicated for weeding (64.33%) and transplanting (58%) activities were moderately heavy and harvesting activity (59%) was heavy. Intervention with ergonomically designed ―Brinjal picker‖ increased output efficiency by 8.16 per cent, reduced the exposure level by 30.37 per cent as well as reduced grip fatigue and exertion. 76.67 per cent of the respondents found the newly designed ―Brinjal picker‖ very comfortable. Evaluation of the newly designed ―Brinjal picker‖ expresses that exposure level; exertion and comfort were found to be highly significant with 0.00 ―p‖ value which indicates that the intervention has an effect on the female vegetable cultivators.EnglishThesis