Assessment of musculoskeletal disorders among workers of Chhattisgarh engaged in harvesting of lotus rhizome

Abstract

At present the farmers don’t use any types of harvesting tools believing that it may damage the rhizomes. The lotus rhizome was under the mud at a depth of about 15-30 cm under 30-40 cm depth of water. The traditional harvesting method consists of farmers feeling for the rhizomes using their toes and then digging them out by their hands. The process of harvesting was very tedious, hazardous and drudgery involve. The test was conducted to know various physical problems and pain on body parts of the labour engaged for harvesting of lotus rhizomes in Dhamtari districts among the farmer producer group in 2018-19. The main aim of this study was to investigate postures adopted by agricultural workers during harvesting of lotus rhizome in muddy field and to analyze the causes of discomfort related to those postures. 20 male workers in age group 20-45 were randomly chosen. They were screened for normal with medical investigation. These subjects were used for the traditional harvesting of lotus rhizome. Musculoskeletal disorders (MSD’s) are common among the workers. Analysis of MSD’s indicates that the workers engaged in lotus rhizome harvesting had exposed that discomfort level was very severe in neck (95%), clavicle (75%), shoulder (90%), fingers (90%), lower back (80%), thigh (75%), foot (75%) and toes (85%) was high when compared with seven other parts. These discomforts may be due to prolonged standing in muddy field and necessitated bending posture.