Kalpana Jha, a 26 year old, software engineer, suffers from chronic back ache. Worn-out from making an effort to find the reason for the pain, Kalpana has now accepted fate and lives with the pain, as a part of her life now.
However, Kalpana, is not the only one to carry this crippling burden. As many as 70% of Bangalore’s population , aged between 26 and27, suffer from chronic back pain. Such figures would have got tagged as merely bizarre, some 10 years back but, not today. The latest trend today in city hospitals is the influx of youngsters and not septuagenarians or octogenarians.
Yesteryear, Bollywood starlet, Moushmi Chatterji, blames multinational companies (MNCs), for these repercussions. “Working against the law of nature is bound to hit back, MNCs lure Indian mass with money, make them work like robotic machines and burden them with only stress. What they eat is Junk, and they live like a zombie.” But she agrees to the fact there is no other way to go, with the prices of every single thing shooting up daily, one has to earn-earn and earn, if they wish to live.
Doctors also, have warned IT workers about the risks involved with “geek lifestyle”. IT workers are the most stressed of all professionals and their sedentary daily life makes it worse. Dr. Chitanya, says: “A majority of IT and BPO population suffer from either back, neck, shoulder or wrist pain. Apart from stress, sedentary life style, absence of work-life balance and unfavorable work stations contribute majorly towards crippling disasters.” He feels life style and work balance entirely depends on the individual, but setting up appropriate work station is the job of employers.
What do you mean by work station? “The desk on which we work is very important, the chair on which we sit should have proper lumber, the height of the table, and placement of the desktop etc has to be in accordance to the physical characteristics of every individual” Said Chaitanya: “If you ask a carpenter what the average height of a table, he will say 28-30 inches which is as per American standards. The average height of an Indian woman is 5'2” and for men its 5'7”, whereas the average height of American women is 5'7” and men around 6ft. so how can American standards provide comfort to Indians?
Most American and European countries are bound by law, and have occupational health and safety administration. In India, there is no such law and the majority of Indian companies have pathetic chairs, pitiable work stations and are least bothered to consider well being of their employees. The reason being, that in India, a company, if it 's an MNC, is not liable to pay lifelong compensation to an employees who invited crippling disorder due to his work culture. In the US, companies have to abide by the law and pay such compensation.
The evolution of man is to move, but with the advent of IT, people hardly move at all. Everything is getting automated and with cabs providing the medium to commute in most IT companies, IT professional barely move at all. They can spend three to four hours in a café, but have no time to do any sort of physical exercise. Changing your posture while sitting at a desk, maintaining the right posture and by putting a bit of effort to walk on a daily basis can avert the changes of you getting crippled. That's what doctors advise. In a study done by NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Health), two groups were assessed. One group took frequents breaks and the others seldom took them. The end result showed that the group that took frequents breaks turned in higher key strokes.
Lots of people carry their work back home and spend a lot of time on their beds, hitting the keyboard. Not only do they complain of neck and shoulder pain because of improper posture, they also deal with sleepless nights. The bed should only be used for two things – sex and sleep.
Dr. Revati from the Republic Hospital comes across techies with health problems on a daily basis. The lady doctor brings in another astonishing fact apart from stress and wrong working posture. She said that she has come across people with urinary related problems, people tend to control their urinal mechanism out of listlessness and later suffer problems, which can last a life time.
Raksha, who is a fitness instructor with Wipro, says the majority of crowd today in IT and the BPO sector is very young, after fun filled life of college they are suddenly transformed into a professional, whose job requires sitting for prolonged hours. It’s really important for them to do some physical exercise. She said: 'When I joined Wipro, I noticed majority of people were not keen on sweating out in the gym, as one tends to lose interest. That’s when I thought of an alternative and infused music. Youngsters love music and they love to dance, so I enrolled them to aerobics. The catchy music holds their interest and dance move makes them sweat. Aerobics not only is good for the body, it also makes you look 10 years younger than your original age.
“I have had students who were very hefty and now they are well in shape. Naveen, was one of my student, who worked in Wipro, since he got so fascinated with fitness regime, he quit his job and now is a trainer” said Raksha.
However, few companies have started realising the importance of employee well being and are working towards attaining a healthy organisation. Mindtree consulting and Philips software India, have restored proper work stations, whereas, Wipro and Satyam computers have various programs running, to keep their employees mentally and physically fit. Wipro recently started Fit for Life, to keep their employees fit and health. Satyam believes in appealing through co-curricular activities, and spends staggering amount on Fun@work every year.
Apart from the employers, an individual also needs to take the responsibility of maintaining a healthy life, or else we might soon hear the new adage “all work and no play make’s Jack a crippled boy'. X |