.
Occupational Health Hazards of Farm Women in Tobacco
ABSTRACT:
The health of women is an important indicator of national development
as the woman is the preserver of tradition and cultural heritage, manager of resources and rearer of future generation. In Tobacco cultivation, women play a crucial role starting from the selection of seeds through sowing, manuring, nursery bed raising, transplanting, harvesting, curing, stringing, grading and packing etc. These operations are time consuming and they require lot of patience and skill. The long hours of productive physical labour causes feelings of exhaustion and drudgery among farmwomen. The study was carried out in Rajanagaram, Korukonda and Rangampeta mandals of East Godavari district. Hundred-farm women labour, working in Tobacco were selected on purposive random sampling for study. A pre tested interview schedule was constructed to study the working conditions and drudgery of farm women. Study revealed that there is a significant contribution of women labourers in every farm operation. All the agricultural operations in tobacco were compared and rated with a difficulty score. The drudgery index score was calculated by taking the parameters of difficulty score, ease of handling, time spent and frequency of performance. The high drudgery index was observed for weeding, watering, manuring followed by harvesting and stringing. The study recommends certain strategies for the benefit of women workers in Tobacco depending on the health hazards expressed by them.The strategies for improvement of the working conditions recommended in the study are Use of protective clothing, foot wear, head cover, gloves, mask etc., Provision of toilets & adequate washing facilities; Adequate protection against chemicals, insecticides and pesticides; Periodical medical checkup and supervision; Development of appropriate cost effective & location specific technology suitable to women’s body stature & ergonomics; Improvement of health & nutrition through various schemes; Training & education in use of tools, implements and machinery; Up gradation of traditional skillsetc.
The other strategic conclusions derived in the study wereØ The development and standardization of agro tools in terms of comfort, quality and efficiency by keeping in view of ergonomics of women.Ø Information on various kinds of accidents, health hazards should be properly documented and published.Ø Women should be freed from wage discrimination, sex discrimination and exploitation. Ø Self-help groups can also be formed cooperative sectors for more coordination in terms of functional operation.
Combating malnutrition in vulnerable groups thrpogh health plicies and programmes.Ø Conducting functional literacy programmes in Crop production.
Published: November 02, 2006
More summaries by sumasri
More