Labor and Globalization .Volume 15 Edited by Christoph Scherrer

American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2013

Women?s contribution to agriculture, whether it is in subsistence farming or commercial agriculture, when measured in number of tasks performed and time spent, is greater than men. The proportion of women in agricultural production and postharvest activities ranges from 20 to 70% and their involvement is increasing in many developing countries, particularly with the development of export-oriented irrigated farming, which is associated with a growing demand for female labour, including migrant workers. Generally, operations performed by men are those that entail use of machinery and animals. Contrary to this, women always rely on manual labour using only their own energy. Not only are women overworked, their work is more arduous than that undertaken by men. Further, since women?s work is largely based on human energy it is considered unskilled and hence less productive. On this basis, women are invariably paid less wage despite their working harder and for longer hours.

Rural women in Karnataka are extensively involved in agricultural activities. However the nature and extent of their involvement differs with the variations in agro-production systems. The mode of female participation in agricultural production varies with the land-owning status of farm household. Their roles range from managers to landless laborers. In all farm production, women's average contribution is estimated at 55% to 66% of the total labor with percentages, much higher in certain regions. In the hills and mountain region of Karnataka it is estimated that a pair of bullocks works 1064 hours, a man 1212 hours and a woman 3485 hours in a year on one hectare farm(censes report 2001), a figure that illustrates women's significant contribution to agricultural production. At the same time they are facing many health problems due to their tight schedule with the work, lack of protein food, competitive life, side effect of pesticides, chemicals, organic fertilizers etc which are used for agriculture purpose. Researcher has chosen 25 women labors of Belgaum district Athani taluka randomly and describes their health issues here. Despite of this all efforts by women in the field of agriculture, still she have not got considerable dignity in the agricultural laboring, with stigmatization of gender bias and everyone believes women’s are not enough strong physically comparing to men and also women health issues interrupting her to work hard and get good output. Researcher made effort to understand agriculture women general health issues and intervention of social work methods in order to prevent and resolve such issues collectively.

European Journal of Business and Management Research, 2022

Workers in the agricultural sector face several work-related health and safety challenges, similar to what workers in other high-risk sectors experience. However, there is a dearth of research efforts in the informal agricultural sector regarding the health and safety of farmworkers. The present paper explored the common work-related health and safety challenges that rice farmworkers in major irrigation schemes in southern Ghana experienced. The paper also explored the attitude and extent of personal protective equipment usage among rice farmworkers. Data were obtained from 11 key informants selected from three irrigation schemes and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Analysis of the data involved theoretical thematic analysis of Braun and Clarke. The analysis showed that rice farmworkers experienced several work-related health issues, injuries, and disorders, including cutlass injuries, lower back disorders, and malaria. It was also observed that the farmers were not using appropri...

2012

Abstract: Mexican migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the US-Mexico border region face health hazards and occupational risks and are becoming commonly known in the public health literature. According to several studies, farmworkers have high levels of chronic diseases such as diabetes and respiratory problems, are at risk for infectious diseases, and experience among the highest incidences of work-related injuries of any profession. The findings from two studies are considered and presented with the objective of contributing to an overall understanding of migrant farmworkers as a workforce moving across national boundaries and affected by the work environments and health stressors both shared and unique to each context. We propose a binational approach to comprehensively address the health problems and socioeconomic challenges faced by migrant and seasonal farmworkers. In this paper we present the results of two distinct but complementary studies

Global Labour Journal

Aligning Perspectives on Health, Safety and Well-Being, 2020

Routledge eBooks, 2019

The search for information and analysis of the mortality of agricultural workers in underdeveloped countries shows that there exists hardly any research on this subject. What little information that can be found is incomplete and scattered, making it difficult to gain systematic empirical knowledge of the problem. In addition, data are not collected for the purpose of explaining the patterns of mortality observed. It therefore seems necessary to generate a theoretical framework permitting the analysis of mortality among agricultural workers. This paper intends to point out the close relationship that exists between the mortality and the dynamic of the social and economic process of agriculture in the iinderdeveloped countries. By doing so, we hope to show that the problems of health, disease, and death of socially defined groups are not simply a matter of biology, but of the interrelation between biology and the historical process of which these groups are a part. Around 1.5 billion men, women, and children live in the rural areas of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Approximately 400 million are men aged 15 years or over. Since industry is not located in these areas, and commerce and services-while of great importance from an economic and social point of view-do not occupy a significant portion of the rural population, the vast majority of them are agricultural workers. In addition, millions of women and children participate regularly in agricultural production, giving us some idea of the numerical importance of those involved in agricultural work and exposed to the wide range of risks and indirect effects of the work conditions characterizing this sector. Contrary to what is generally believed, the work and lives of agricultural workers and their families cannot be explained or analyzed in terms of simple backwardness, but rather should be seen within the context of the contradictions that the process of transformation occurring in these parts of the world is generating. Generally, the rural population has to confront this process of ch:ange in very difficult conditions for economic, political, and social reasons. Unorganized, poor, and with little knowledge useful to the manipulation of externally imposed conditions, the rural workers-wage laborers and peasants-pay a high price for "modernization." This paper was presented at a seminar on Biological and Social Aspects of Mortality and the Length of Life organized by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and held in Fiugi Terme, Italy, M a y 13-16,1980.

AAOHN journal : official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, 2004

The lifestyles of employees affect their work and their health. Occupational health nurses need to know as much as possible about employees to render the best care possible. Production agriculture is a risky business performed by many employees. By understanding the risks involved, occupational health nurses can optimize the health of workers in the off farm and on farm contexts of their lives. Managers and supervisors need to realize that investment in farm health and safety can yield financial benefits in terms of decreasing lost workdays caused by injury and illness and increased morale through public recognition of the importance of agricultural production.

Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y, , C Ch hi id da am mb ba ar ra am m R R. . M MA AN NI IG GA AN ND DA AN N R Re es se ea ar rc ch h S Sc ch ho ol la ar r, , D De ep pa ar rt tm me en nt t o of f B Bu us si in ne es ss s A Ad dm mi in ni is st tr ra at ti io on n, , A An nn na am ma al la ai i U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y, , C Ch hi id da am mb ba ar ra am m ABSTRACT In today's world the agricultural sector employs half of the world's labour force with an estimated 1.3 billion workers active in agricultural production worldwide. The majority of agricultural workers are found in developing countries. A great majority are small scale farmers. They have been more often victims rather than beneficiaries of the green revolution, the technological development and the globalization trends which characterized the 20th century. Agriculture is one of the three most hazardous sectors of activity, both in industrialized and developing countries. According to estimates from the International Labour Office (ILO), some 170,000 agricultural workers are killed each year. This means that workers in agriculture run at least twice the risk of dying on the job as compared with workers in other sectors. Agricultural mortality rates have remained consistently high in the last decade as compared with other sectors, where fatal accident rates have decreased. Millions of agricultural workers are seriously injured in workplace accidents with agricultural machinery or poisoned by pesticides and other agrochemicals. Furthermore, due to the widespread under-reporting of deaths, injuries and occupational diseases in agriculture, the real picture of the occupational health and safety of farm workers is likely to be worse than what official statistics indicate.