Ergonomic assessment of drudgery of women worker involved in cashew nut processing factory in Meghalaya, India

摘要

In Meghalaya, a state of North East India, where cashew nut cultivation and processing is an important new area in case of agro-industrial development The labour intensive processes are breaking (shelling) and peeling of brown skin where women worker are involved. This study was envisaged to know the drudgery in terms of physiological responses, work related musculoskeletal problem and relationship between demographic factors and health risk factors of women worker. Forty women workers were selected randomly from the cashew nut processing factory whose on an average BMI was 19.44 with mesomorphic type of body. The work in cashew nut factory was moderately heavy and the cardiovascular stress index was 23.82 with 8.85 kj/min energy expenditure. Musculoskeletal disorder was reported and high level investigation and changes are required soon.