Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

India, one of the fastest growing economies in the world with about 8% GDP growth, still strives for infrastructure boom. Together with this there is a wide gap between urban and rural settings. One of the reasons for higher women workforce in hilly areas is that most of the able bodied men migrate in the plains for livelihood and leave not only task of running the household squarely on the shoulders of women but also most of the heavy agricultural tasks. The economy of hills is largely dependent on natural resources, and ever shrinking forest and water resources have hit women really hard. They spend longer hours gathering fuel, wood, fodder and to fetch water. Then losses of forest cover have made agricultural activities more cumbersome. They often work for 14 hours a day and during peak season (September- October) when women’s work day extend up to 15-16 hours a day. Most of the time, women living in hilly areas carry water, fuel, wood and fodder materials from long distances which involve carrying loads on head, back, shoulders, on lap of hands etc. These involve walking long distances in hilly regions with poor infrastructural facilities, poorly constructed roads with a lot of stones and pebbles, narrow pathways, full of twists and turns with slanting and steep slopes. All of these contribute to increase the physiological costs and physical loads to a great extent. Other debilitating factor involves scattered land holdings which again cause women to cover long distances in difficult environmental and geographical conditions, due to which the women suffer from various kinds of ailments such as backache, pain in shoulder and neck, and fall or slips causing serious injuries. Musculoskeletal disorders are more common among women rather than men, especially in neck and shoulder disorders. Considering the above facts the main objective of this study was to find out the risk and status of injuries, accidents and MSDs in hill regions. The physiological data and perceived exertion ratings also showed higher cost to the workers while carrying loads on the shoulder and least cost while carrying loads on the back and RPE was also found to be in between weak to moderate exertion with 15 and 20 kg of weights. It is advisable for those women to carry 15-20 kg of weight on back in order to minimize the risk of MSDs and injuries. L-shaped external frame backpack was developed which brought down the level of physiological cost and perceived exertion, and did not cause any pain and pressure points while carrying different amount and types of loads. The subjects felt more comfortable with the developed backpack while carrying grasses and wood. To conclude we can say that infrastructural facilities creates situations and conditions which have catastrophic implications on the people and often we work towards finding solutions to the problems related to the occupational and industrial settings and forget about the safety of the common people especially women in hilly region.

Biography

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