Abstract
In rice cultivation, post-harvesting tasks are essential for the preparation of rice from paddy where mainly female workers perform a sequential work through manual efforts. The present study was aimed to evaluate musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and postural stress of female workers engaged in different post-harvesting jobs. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 female cultivators in different districts of West Bengal State, India. The modified Nordic questionnaire was applied to identify the MSDs in different body parts. The postural stress was analyzed by four methods, viz, OWAS, RULA, REBA and QEC. The results show that the prevalence of MSDs was very high among the workers and the most affected areas were the lower and upper back, shoulder, wrist, knee and calf. Postural analysis indicated that the participants had to adopt different stressful postures during performing different post-harvesting jobs. Postural stress might be the reason of the occurrence of MSDs. From this study it has been recommended that workers should avoid inadequate work postures as far as possible during their work for reducing job-related health hazards.
