image

Content

image

Type : Other Article

Study on Selected Strength Parameters of Women from Different Ethnic Groups of Sikkim for Design Consideration of Agricultural Tools and Equipment

S.N. Yadav

Abstract

The inhabitants of Sikkim, the Bhutias, the Lepchas and the Nepalese have their interesting characteristic features. While the Lepchas of Sikkim have their own food habits, attire, language, script, culture and traditions, the Bhutias too have their own culture, rituals and traditions. There are many castes among the Nepali community, namely the Bahuns, the Chettris, the Newars, the Rais, the Limboos, the Tamangs, the Gurungs, the Mangars, the Sunuwars, the Kamis, the Damais etc. It was felt necessary to compare some of their strength parameters necessary to operate the hand tools and equipment so that it can be ensured that whether size of tools designed based on the strength data of whole population would be suitable for all the women from different ethnic groups. Aiming to this, the 79 body dimension and 16 strength parameters of 284 farm women and 320 farmers from 30 villages of all the four district of Sikkim were collected. This data base would be useful for designing of appropriate tools and equipment suiting to their anthropometry and strength data. Some of the important strength parameters namely hand grip strength both left and right, push strength with both hands in standing posture and pull strength with both hands in standing posture were considered in the study and these were compared amongst the Bhutia (N= 42), Chettri (N= 40), Lepcha (N= 56), Rai (N = 26), Sherpa (N= 07) and Tamang (N = 12) farm women of Sikkim. The descriptive statistic and t-test were applied to test the Null hypothesis “There is no strength difference in various ethnic groups of farm women”. In general, it was observed that at 5% confidence, there was no significant different in hand grip strength, push and pull strength among all the ethnic group. Therefore, study concluded that same size of the tool from the power required point of view shall be suitable for all women in Sikkim.

Keyword: Lepchas; Nepalese; Sikkim; Habits; Language; Script; Culture; Traditions;

Full Text