Intervention of Ergonomics in Hand Driven Cotton Spinning Operation

Cotton spinning is an important operation in small scale and cottage textile industries in India. A large number of women workers in these industries perform cotton spinning task adopting squatting posture in traditional workshops. A Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (DMQ) was used to evaluate 40 operators regarding work related musculoskeletal disorders WMSDs. Among the operators, severe cervical and lumber joint problems along with knee, joint pains and shoulders were found more prevalent compared to other body regions. They were observed and evaluated with the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) technique and their exposure to the WMSDs was assessed. Based on the problems found, a new workstation was developed and ten operators were asked to work in the same workstation. Certain aspects regarding the ergonomic evaluation for those workers are discussed in this study. It is revealed that the suggested workstation improves working posture and results in reduced postural stress on operators ’ bodies and, consequently, reduce prevalence of MSDs symptoms