Work profile of women workers involved in chikankari industries and impact on their health

The city of Lucknow has a prominent place in the history of India particularly for its art, historical monuments and rich cultural heritage. Lucknow is also known around the world over for its many fine handicrafts. Some of the most popular names in the list are chikankari, hand-block, textile printing, zari, zardozi, ivory or bone carving, terracotta and many others that are practiced by various artisans of Lucknow. Chikankari is considered to be the most popular amongst these and is recognized worldwide. It is a fine art of embroidery made with untwisted yarn with the help of the needle on a fine cloth. In order to achieve the objectives of the study descriptive cum experimental design was planned. The present study was carried out in Lucknow city. Both purposive/convenient and random sampling techniques were used to select the study area and samples. A total of 120 workers were selected from Lucknow industries. There are various chikankari industry in Lucknow but we selected only two units because of the need of the research. While comparing the data among different units of chikankari industry, it was observed that major temporary chronic problem faced by unit I workers i.e. 36.6 percent was tingling in hands, which was due to the conditions prevailing in their work place like staying in one position for a long period of time. Whereas among unit II workers 20 percent who were involved in embroidery task were suffering from arthritis problem, as a majorly health concern. These all chronic problem faced by different units of workers were temporary in nature and were due to the condition under which tasks were performed.