Assessment of energy balance against the nutritional status of women carriers in the brickfields of West Bengal

Abstract

The Indian brick industry is an unorganized sector in which large numbers of migrant women workers are employed. A survey was conducted on 62 women workers working in different brickfields of West Bengal to assess their physiological workload, nutritional profile, total energy expenditure and energy balance. Energy intake was calculated using physiological fuel values of carbohydrate, fat and protein. From the results it is seen that 13% of the sample population falls under severe (grade III) chronic energy deficiency. The average daily consumption of the workers was comparatively lower than their daily energy expenditure, considering the nature of the job which falls under heavy to extremely heavy categories. This negative energy balance is effectively observed in the nutritional anthropometry data. Thus, an immediate ergonomics intervention with better nutrition should be implemented to improve the health status of the workers so they can safely continue to work for a longer period.

Identifying musculoskeletal issues and associated risk factors among clay brick kiln workers

“…Therefore, it seems that the workers of higher age group find it hard to be in this profession. In contradiction to the previous studies2, 3, 5 ) , the majority of workers were found with normal BMI. This shows the better nutritional condition of brick workers in Rajasthan in contrast to some other Indian studies2, 5, 24 ) .…”

“…Due to a lot of manual work with traditional methods and long working hours, clay brick manufacturing is a strenuous occupation in India. Findings of the present study showed that most of the labours in this sector belong to the age group of 21–30 yr, which is almost similar to the results of previously published studies2, 3, 24, 26 ) . Therefore, it seems that the workers of higher age group find it hard to be in this profession.…”

“…The clay brick making process in India includes a large number of manual activities of repetitive nature which are continuously performed in awkward postures with traditional hand tools1 ) . Indian fired clay brick kilns are categorised as unorganised small-scale industries2, 3 ) . The unorganised sector in India hires approximately 458 million workers including around 10 million people in fired clay brick kilns4 ) .…”

“…Ergonomic interventions (i.e., work system and hand-tool redesign, job rotation, training on ergonomic principles, etc.) are the best ways to reduce MSDs among workers and to improve productivity2, 12, 16, 20, 21 ) . Exploration of occupational health issues and associated factors is the first stage towards designing the work environment ergonomically16, 22, 23 ) .…”

Maternal Body Mass Index Is Strongly Associated with ChildrenZ-Scores for Height and BMI

“…Arlappa et al [71] observed a very high prevalence of CED (52%) among women from Rajasthan. In a recent study, Bandyopadhyay and Sen [72] reported very high levels of CED among women working in brickfields of West Bengal. High levels of CED were reported from women belonging to different tribal populations by Bisai and Bose [73], Chakrabarty and Bharati [74], Banik [75], and Ghosh [76].…”