Ergonomic design intervention strategy for work tools development for women agro based workers in Northeast India

Abstract

Strategy for finding the appropriate strategy for work tool development has become a crucial issue in occupational wellness of varied nature of women workforce of Northeast India. This paper deals with ergonomics intervention through sustainable work tool design development process. Workers who frequently shift to different activities quite often in unorganised small-scale fruit processing units where productivity is directly related to the harvesting season require different work tools relevant to specific tasks and mostly workers themselves manage work tools of their own with available local resources. Whereas in contrast the tea-leaf pluckers are engaged in a single task throughout the year, and the work schedule and work equipment is decided and supplied to them based on the corporate decision where the workers do not have any individual control. Observations confirm the need for organising participatory workshops specific to trade based occupational well-being and different work tools for different tasks in mostly private owned unorganised sector. Implementation of single variety work tool development that supports a crucial component in tea-leaf plucking for which they are engaged in full time employment; and through a corporate decision a single design with its number of users makes a good effect.

Ergonomía Del Trabajo Agrícola en Laderas De Cerro en La Zona Central De Chile: Estudio De Caso en Faenas De Riego

“…En la búsqueda de literatura relativa a ergonomía y agricultura, destacan gran cantidad de trabajos efectuados en la India, estudios de antropometría (Dewangan et al, 2008;Dewangan, Owary & Datta, 2010;Chakrabarti, & Bhattachheriya, 2012) de hombres y mujeres agricultores de sobrevivencia para el diseño de herramientas manuales menos riesgosas, técnicas para controlar el trabajo pesado en mujeres (Kishtwaria & Rana, 2012;Mehta et al, 2008), mediciones de fuerza muscular voluntaria en hombres y mujeres (Dewangan, Gogoi, Owary & Gorate, 2010;Agrawal et al, 2009). Otro aspecto se refiere a la determinación de fuerza voluntaria y antropometría para el diseño de tractores (Tiwari et al, 2010;Mehta et al, 2008), evaluación ergonómica del uso de plataformas mecánicas para la cosecha de frutas en altura (Alves-Costa & Camarotto, 2012).…”