Revista de Ergonomia
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Determination of Safe Carrying Load Limit for Women Carrying Water

Rohit Sharma and Ranjit Singh

Fetching and carrying water is women’s work in rural India, which results in poor health of women. So, a physiological, biomechanical and psycho-physiological study was conducted among the Women Carrying Water (WCW) for determining maximum acceptable carrying load. A total of 20 subjects were selected from the villages of Haryana, who perform water carrying activities for fulfilling their daily basic needs of water. In the present work, for physiological study both the field and laboratory data were collected. Information regarding Blood Pressure (B.P), hemoglobin content, weight, height, age, ponderal index, lean body weight etc. was also recorded. Biomechanical stresses shows that carrying water is safe only for head mode. For shoulder and waist mode carrying water should be stopped for reducing the risk of injuries. In psychophysiological evaluation out of 7 subjects all rated 15 kg load as the moderate but for shoulder and waist mode only 4 and 3 subjects rated as the moderate and all other subjects rated it as the heavy and very heavy. By considering the stresses such as cardiovascular, muscular and biomechanical and also by psychophysiological evaluation it is concluded that carrying load for the head mode should be around 15 kg and for shoulder and waist mode should not be more than 10 kg at the walking speed of 3.5 km.hr-1.