This fall’s farm safety campaign has been launched this week, focusing for the first time on women’s high ability to detect and avoid danger. We totally agree with the agriculture ministry’s decision to place women’s views as the pillar of the campaign. We even think they should have done it earlier. Women, who occupy half of the total agricultural worker population, can contribute greatly to improving the working environment of farmers and meeting the goal of zero accidents.
Some 600 organizations are participating in the campaign which will run through October, distributing campaign materials nationwide and holding training sessions and lectures, as well as visiting farms to ramp up safety awareness. Agricultural co-operatives have been holding farm safety lectures, but the problem is that most attendants have been men.
A growing number of women are engaged in operating agricultural machinery. It is important to share among family members information on what kind of operations or actions can lead to accidents, and what parts of the machinery are dangerous, such as notifying that rotating blades do not stop immediately even after an engine is stopped. One woman said she learned at a safety training session that the tractor her husband drives can turn over easily. Women who pray for their family members’ safety should be the ones to attend such sessions.
Safety experts who hold face-to-face interviews with people involved in farm work accidents say that women tend to have a sharper observant eye. Many women pointed out that accidents occurred at places which they thought need attention, such as a stepladder on unstable ground or dangers inside cattle barns. When they hear such warnings, instead of only saying they will be careful, family members should take specific measures to improve the situation. The reason why the ministry decided to utilize women’s viewpoints is because women are aware of so many hazards.
According to The Japan Agricultural News’ survey conducted on women farmers four years ago, one fifth of 376 respondents said they experienced getting into an accident. More than half of the accidents were caused by farming machinery, which show that women are engaged in operations as dangerous as men. As for causes of the accidents, the largest number of respondents answered “carelessness,” followed by “aging,” “lack of technical skills” and “machinery size or weight unfit for the body.”
The survey shows the situation that small women are trying hard to operate large machines. When they drive large tractors, small women must slide their seats closest to the steering wheel and still cannot press the clutch or brake pedals unless they stretch out their legs as much as possible, which is dangerous indeed. Agricultural machines are generally designed for use by men, and many respondents of the survey called for improvement of machinery design to make them lighter, easier to adjust and offer wide-angle view.
Agriculture ministry statistics show that out of 350 farm work-related deaths reported in 2012, 48 were women. Between 50 and 70 women are victimized every year. In its third basic plan for gender equality, the government included the need to take farm work-related accident prevention measures. It states that the government should implement measures to strengthen workplace safety for women farmers, such as designing farm machinery which is easier for them to operate.
If such machines are developed, it will also help other people such as the elderly and the handicapped. Listening to farmers’ voices on the needs to beef up workplace safety will be an important step to protect their lives.
(Sept. 5, 2014)