Ergonomics and Organization of Work, vol 4; No.3, December 1997Development of ergonomics training and research in India,by Rabindra Nath Sen, India |
Introduction
Ergonomics can be defined as the science, technology and art of people at work (1).Since ancient times, the skilled workers in India, on the basis of their own practical experience, have been applying basic principles that today are included under ergonomics or human factors.
In order for ergonomics, and occupational health and safety on the whole, to be applied in agriculture, industries and other areas in a manner that would contribute to the progress and development of industrially developing countries, such as India, low-cost solutions yielding improvements are central, and these would have far-reaching impacts.
Training and education in ergonomics
Some of the research and training on ergonomics done in India by Sen (2,3), as well as that done in some other industrially developing countries, has been reviewed by Kogi and Sen (4). The first postgraduate specialisation and training course in ergonomics and work physiology in India, a two-year programme, was arranged in 1971 at the University of Calcutta. This course was open to graduate students after they had successfully completed the three-year B.Sc. (Honours) degree programme in physiology. This new training programme was launched because the need for human resources equipped to deal with the problems encountered by agricultural and industrial workers was recognized, and application of ergonomics in day-to-day working life is a mean of improving efficiency, increasing productivity, and of enhancing occupational and environmental health and safety.
Several in-house and other training programmes for workers, supervisors, trade union officials, managers, government executives, and others were undertaken, at their request, so that awareness of ergonomics could be brought to people at all levels.
Unfortunately, training in ergonomics and in occupational and environmental health and safety has not yet begun at the school level, though some ergonomics education is available as part of the B.Sc. (Honours) programme at the University of Calcutta. Ergonomics, in a very simple form, should be introduced in the school curriculum in order that school students can apply the principles of ergonomics in their daily lives and can undertake project work wherein ergonomics education could be utilized to produce successful product designs. In India, where the rate of literacy is low, the mass media - especially the radio and television should be employed to increase awareness of ergonomics among the Indian public in general.
Studies on agricultural ergonomics
After gaining independence from British rule, India was initially dependent predominantly on agriculture; but in order to improve the national economy, a process of industrial development was begun and India gradually became an industrially developing country. Because of the labour-intensive economy, one of the most important problems faced by workers was that of manual materials handling. The knowledge generated through ergonomic research has been applied to devise ways in which the muscular effort and work involved in manual materials handling can be done properly and efficiently, depending on the persons' capabilities and capacities. Even today, in Calcutta a very big package of vegetables weighing 500 to 700 kilos is transported by having a group of ten or twelve workers lift the package onto the heads of a group of four workers, who together carry it through the very congested and narrow passageways of the wholesale markets.
Owing to financial constraints, India cannot afford to have many highly costly ergonomic solutions to the problems faced by agricultural workers. Hence, studies were undertaken to devise low-cost ergonomic improvements, based on anthropometry and other aspects of ergonomics, to the designs of hand tools and implements, e.g. sickles, ploughs, spades, shovels (1), hoes, tea plucking baskets (5), float-seats', etc. (3). Many of these tools and implements increase efficiency, raise production and reduce the strain and fatigue experienced by workers. Special ergonomically-designed lightweight portable hats are now available to protect agricultural and other workers from intense solar radiation and heavy rains, while the float-seat' reduces the strain of bending postures, increases efficiency and raises productivity during the transplantation of paddy. A leg cover has been introduced to reduce the occurrences of bacterial and fungal infections of the hair roots and skin caused by contaminated water in the fields. It also diminishes the chances of being bitten by snakes, leeches, insects, etc., and reduces slipping on the muddy ground while working.
Studies on industrial ergonomics
Similarly, in both the organized and unorganized industrial sectors (small-scale, medium and large-scale), ergonomically modified shovels, shovels-cum-hoes and harnesses for handcarts as well as modification of the design of wheel-barrows, fork-lifts and platform trucks, overhead cranes, etc. have yielded improvements in mechanical materials handling.
Several studies have been conducted on the ergonomic improvement of drivers' cabins and controls (6) and of track tools for manual maintenance of railway tracks in India, which has one of the world's longest railway tracks. Other studies were undertaken with a view to ergonomic improvements in the motorised public transport system involving, e.g. buses (7), and in the non-motorised transport system involving, e.g. hand-pulled (8) and cycle rickshaws, cycle vans, etc.
Role of different organizations
The Department of Physiology, Presidency College, Calcutta, pioneered Indian research on ergonomics and work physiology in 1953, when the energy expenditure of workers performing different jobs in industry and of workers performing different daily activities in different occupations was determined. The Section of Physiological and Industrial Hygiene of the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta, and the Department of Physiology in the University College of Science, Calcutta, began research on work physiology in the 1960s. Various institutions including the Industrial Physiology Division of the Central Labour Institute, Indian Institute of Technology, National Institute of Training in Industrial Engineering, at Bombay; the National Institute of Occupational Health, and National Institute of Design, at Ahmedabad; and defence institutes, at Delhi initiated research on ergonomics at a much later period. In government, the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Environment and Forests and other bodies such as the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research have sponsored projects on similar lines.
More ergonomic research is called for and additional training institutes should be established in the near future in India, the country with the world's second largest population. Research and training should focus not only on urban areas but should also be available in rural regions where 70% of the people reside. Scientific and professional academic societies, such as the Indian Society of Ergonomics (ISE) and similar non-governmental organizations, have great role to play in the application of multidisciplinary ergonomic approches whereby human-machine-environment interactions can be optimized, to the benefit of the people. Steps should be taken to increase collaborative efforts among the various institutions, industries and agricultural organizations (which, unfortunately, are now absent) in order to solve the pressing ergonomic problems facing India.
Acknowledgements
Financial assistance for the projects sponsored by the Department of Environment and Forests, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, is gratefully acknowledged.
References
1. Sen RN. Application of ergonomics to industrially developing countries. Ergonomics 1984;27:1021 32.1.
2. Sen RN. Ergonomics Science and Technology of man at work its role in our national development. Presidential address at the Section of Physiology, Proceedings of the 66th Session of the Indian Science Congress, January 1979;Part II:53 77.
3. Sen RN. Overview of ergonomic needs and research in India. In: Bhattacharya A, McGlothlin J. Occupational Ergonomics: Theory and Practice. New York: Mercel Dekker, Inc., 1996:749 59.
4. Kogi K, Sen RN. Third World Ergonomics, International Reviews of Ergonomics 1987;1:77 118.
5. Sen RN, Ganguli AK, Ray GG, De A. Tea-leaf plucking workloads and environmental studies. Ergonomics 1983;26:887 93.
6. Sen RN, Ganguly AK. Preliminary investigations into the Loco-man factor on the Indian Railways. Applied Ergonomics 1982;13:107 17.
7. Sen RN, Nag PK. Are the Calcutta public buses ergonomically designed? Ind J Physiol. and Allied Sci. 1973;27:156 7.
8. Sen RN, Basu S, Goswami A. An ergonomic design of hand-pulled rickshaw. Proceedings of the 66th Session of the Indian Science Congress, January 1979;Part III:8 9.
Rabindra Nath Sen
Ergonomics Laboratory
University of Calcutta
Permanent mailing address:
HB-260, Sector 3, Salt Lake City
Calcutta - 700 091, India
E-mail: rnsen@cubmb.ernet.in