A Study on Postural Analysis of Rural Women Involved in Vegetable Cultivation in Jorhat District of Assam, India

Abstract

One of the first steps in addressing the issue of occupational stress at work is postural stress. A wide range of agricultural tasks, including food production, processing, preservation, and consumption, are carried out by rural women. They are essential to the whole process of growing vegetables, from preparing the land to harvesting the crop. The present study is aimed to assess the posture adopted by the female workers in all the activities of vegetable cultivation. 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. Majority (65.67%) of the respondent’s body height falls in the category of 151-155 cm and 70 per cent of the respondent’s body weight was in between 41-50 kg. Most of the respondents (70.67%) were having ‘mesomorph’ body type and normal BMI. 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.