[Stoves] Height of stove

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Dr Reddy

Do you have any news for us regarding the sitting position and stove height
from your ergonomic study you mentioned about 6 months ago?

Thanks
Crispin

Sent: March 9, 2007 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Height of stove (Crispin)

Dear Crispin,

Thank you. I think this issue is beyond imagination as far as my experience
with community is considered. India being a tropical country, the
biodiversity is very high and so the food habits are diverse. Which is
reflected in the diverse stoves (size / design / raw material) existing and
the diverse fuel (wood / sticks/ dung / crop residue / husk / charcoal /
pellets / dry leaves / grass, etc) and the utensils of different material
(earth / brass / copper / bronze / iron / aluminium / steel, etc), sizes and
shapes (round / flat bottom / cylindrical / conical sides / straight sides /
hemi-spherical / flat / concave / convex / closed / open) used for cooking
different types of food. Over years these methods of cooking have become
traditional and are part of culture.

Stoves are the assets of women, men rarely deal with stoves used for cooking
at household level. The literate women are relatively less in villages. The
families where women are young and literate they were very much convinced
and were ready to adopt the Good Stove as it was designed. They agreed to
raise the Jowar roti making plate and also were willing to change their
sitting position according to the stove height, whereas the older and
illiterate women were not convinced, who constitute majority of women
population. Yes through good awareness programs the people would adopt
efficient technologies, but it requires some time and it is evolutionary.

Presently we are conducting an ERGONOMICS study (covering sitting posture
during cooking / time spent in a particular position / women's health
problems / etc) for the women who have adopted Good Stoves and those still
using traditional low level stoves. These results will be useful for
understanding the long term sustainability of stoves.

http://e-adptstoves.blogspot.com/

Thanks and regards,

Dr. Sai Bhaskar Reddy