© 2019, IJSRBS All Rights Reserved 196 International Journal of Scientific Research in ______________________________ Research Paper . Biological Sciences Vol.6, Issue.1, pp.197-202, February (2019) E-ISSN: 2347-7520 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26438/ijsrbs/v6i1.197202 An Ergonomic survey of Health Status of the Handloom Weavers Santu Durlov 1 , Atanu Saha 2 , Sasangbaha Mandi 1 , Subhashis Sahu 1* 1 Ergonomics and Occupational Physiology Laboratory, Department of Physiology, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, India 2 Department of Physiology, Sister Nibedita General Degree College for Girls, Kolkata-700027, West Bengal, India *Corresponding Author: Subhashis Sahu, Email: skcsahu@yahoo.co.in, Phone No. +919831316573(M) Available online at: www.isroset.org Received: 23/Jan/2019, Accepted: 08/Feb/2019, Online: 28/Feb/2019 Abstract: Weaving is a one of the time honored crafts in the globe. The handloom industry is mainly a rural based cottage industry, where the processes are done mainly manually. Some handloom product of West Bengal like “Sari” (a traditional Indian dress worn by females in India) appreciated worldwide. It is an extensive piece of art work exclusively done manually by the weavers. The product development encompasses a wide range of tasks such as manual sorting of raw materials, dyeing, cutting, starching and adjustment of loom, arrangement of thread and spindle insertion, etc. This study was aimed at evaluating the different health problems and socio-economic conditions of the handloom weavers. Three hundred forty (340) weavers were randomly taken from different districts of West Bengal and 108 people from the same localities and similar socio- economic background were also taken as a referent. Detailed job profile of handloom weavers was also analyzed with the help of established standard questionnaire. It was observed that all types of weavers belong to low socio-economic condition and suffered from several health problems like pain in different body parts, eye constraint, respiratory problems and many more to say. Keywords: Hand loom weavers, Ergonomics, Work related health problems, Unorganized sector. I. INTRODUCTION Weaving is a one of the oldest surviving traditional crafts in the world. It is a rural based cottage industry, where spinning, weaving and other processes are done mainly manually. A large number of people are engaged in handloom sector in West Bengal as well as in other parts of India. Some handloom product of West Bengal like “Sari” (a traditional Indian dress worn by females in India) appreciated worldwide. “Sari” is an extensive piece of art work exclusively done by hand weaving. The time taken to weave a sari depends on the degrees of art work. “Sari” with simple design or without design takes one day to complete whereas a sari with plenty or composite design may take 2-3 days to complete. The product development encompasses a wide range of tasks such as manual sorting of raw materials, dyeing, cutting, starching and adjustment of loom, arrangement of thread and spindle insertion, etc. [1,2]. Notwithstanding the present era of mechanization and computer aided design, the handloom sector depends exclusively on richness of diverse manual skills, representing the cultural and traditional art forms [3, 4]. Weaving job consist of multiple occupational risk factors like awkward posture, high force, repetitive movement, long duration of work and high visual demand. Unfortunately, the traditional handloom approach to occupational health studies has tended to concentrate mostly on organized sectors and has neglected the occupational health problems in the informal sector where the majority of populations of many developing countries live and works [5, 6]. The handloom weaver’s use manually operated looms that require the weaver to sit at the loom and operate foot pedals that hang below. The studies on handloom weavers of Tamil Nadu showed that pain in different body parts was the main complaint among the weavers; other complaints included respiratory problems, eye problems, problems of digestive system, and sleep disturbances [7]. Study on the musculoskeletal disorders among the male handloom weavers showed that they suffered from pain in different body parts. The maximum discomfort felt in the lower back and knee, caused due to adopting awkward sitting postures for long time, repeated movements of the limbs, altogether puts the workers into stress [8, 9]. Present survey was aimed at assessing health problems and socio-economic conditions of handloom weavers. In the following sections detailed methodology, findings and conclusive discussion has been enumerated.