Women in rural India play a major role in shaping the economy of the country. The women work force in agriculture and allied sectors is estimated to be around 97 million which amounts to about 37% of the total agriculture workers in the country. By 2020, the population of agricultural workers in the country will be about 230 million of which 45% will be the female workers. Thus, there is going to be a significant role of farm women in country’s agriculture and due attention needs to be given to their safety and occupational health issues so as to have higher productivity, less accidents, and minimum occupational health problems. Some improved tools/equipment for harvesting were used by Indian farm women for reducing drudgery was discussed in this article.
Abhijit Khadatkar*
ICAR-Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal - 462038, India
R.R. Potdar
D.J. Shrinivasa
College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur - 313001, India
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