Assessment of Discomfort and Strain among Floriculture Workers

Abstract

The floriculture sector generates employment opportunities for the uneducated, unskilled, poor and mainly people who are marginalized from other employment opportunities. Floriculture is considered as one of the hazardous occupation as it involves the repetitive nature of tasks, heavy workload, adverse environmental conditions and poor tools and equipments. The objectives of the present study were (1) Assessment of the working profile of workers engaged in different floriculture activities and (2) Assessment of discomfort and repetitive strain faced by the workers engaged in floriculture activities. The results from present study revealed that out of the total pooled sample, majority of the respondents were involved in flower picking activity. Approximate fifteen percent (13.24) of the respondents were working 7-9 hours per day in floriculture units. It was found that the maximum discomfort was faced by the respondents during flower picking activity (WMS 3.75) and the repetitive strain was also found highest for the picking activity (WMS 3.34) in Marigold farm units.