Musculoskeletal Discomforts in Papad Industry

Abstract

In developing countries, great efforts are directed towards the development of cottage and small scale industries as the engine for their economic growth.As per the records of the District Industries Centre of Madurai (2013) there are 2933 registered small scale food industries in Madurai. One hundred and fifty papad industry workers were randomly selected for the study from Madurai district. During the survey, it was found that about eighty one per cent of the employees were women. Musculoskeletal discomfort (MSD) was the major health problem of the workers. Analysis of MSDs reveal that low back pain (95%)was more predominant followed by neck (89%) and shoulder pain (77%).The degree of discomforts of low back pain indicate that extreme level of discomfort was faced by fifty nine per cent of the workers and twenty one per cent indicated severe discomforts. Further analysis of neck pain reveals that one-fourth of the workers had extreme discomfort as against forty six per cent who had severe discomfort. This clearly indicates that the postures adopted in the papad making industries may be the reason for the MSDs. To sustain human progress and well-being, there is an urgent need to tackle these problems of the workers.