Let us think about prevention also.

This is the photograph of the private local mill in Baitadi district of Nepal which is on the way to Darchula district. This is the place where generally women from nearby and adjacent community usually come to grind their wheat, paddy and maize. You can see a  belt exposed near by the funnel shaped input section (from where grain is poured for the grinding). Luckily I meet with the operator of this mill and had few exchange of words with him. At the course of exchange, I request him to share any incidence of work related accident that he came across there. He told that in last 10 years of time he had seen three women whose hand was totally crushed while pouring grains. He also told that Nepalese women generally wear Dothi ( it’s similar to sari)  in village, the ending free portion of the Dothi usually hangs at the back side of the shoulder level. Therefore, sometimes running belt suddenly catches the hanged portion of the Dothi pulling the upper extremity under the machine. He also told that women who faced the incidence were Amputed later. After returning back from the trip, i requested my mother to share whether she knows similar tragic incidence of the people when she used to be at village 10 years back. She also revealed that she closely knows four people who were the injured on such mill. Out of four, one woman unfortunately loosed her life as her long hair( Nepalese women usually prefer having long hairs) was caught by the running belt of the mill and remaining 3 were Amputed. Similarly she also shared that except these 4 incidences, she had heard many like such.

We can see this type of mills on every community of the country and there is no option for the people other than these mills for the grinding of their grains. But what strikes on my mind is at least those women  could have been prevented from being disable or losing the precious life if they were aware about the precautionary measures to be taken. I do not have exact figures of such incidence on the other part of the country but i can say this is as the hidden prevalence which should be further explored for the design of some pertinent precautionary measures.

Therefore, it’s my humble request to all the readers, to consider this fact seriously (who knows we or our family members or relative can be a victim one day of such incidence) and  explore the nature of similar prevalence in your community. Please share your findings and then it’s we who should start for what we can contribute to prevent unwanted traumas and deaths in our community.