Health Hazards among Farmwomen in Different On-farm Operations

Many agricultural operations and household activities performed by women involve a lot of physical strain, which creates serious health problems in the long run. Hence in order to explore the occurrence and extent of different health hazards among farmwomen, the present study was conducted in Jhansi district of Bundelkhand. Two hundred farm families from eight villages were interviewed for the study. Various health hazards like skin irritation and allergies, poisoning, cuts, wounds, injuries, congestion, breathing problems, swollen and sore hands and feet, sun stroke, body ache, physical tiredness, eye irritation and bites of various poisonous animals and insects were found to occur in different operations. Out of all activities harvesting, weeding and digging of groundnut were found to have maximum number of health hazards. As far as the participation pattern is concerned, the percentage of women farmers was higher for harvesting (59%), digging of groundnut (78%) and weeding operations (51%). Most of the other operations having health hazards were found to be performed by women farmers. Hence, there is a need to popularize women appropriate technological modules to reduce their occupational health hazards.