ABSTRACT
More than fi ve decades ago, at about the same time that the European Productivity Agency (EPA) established a Human Factors Section (1955), Indian ergonomics is generally thought to have been born in the Physiology Department of the Presidency College, Calcutta, where extensive work was done on the energy metabolism of rickshaw pullers and the body surface area of the Indian adult population. These pioneering efforts in the academic domain were extended in the early 1960s to the Industrial Physiology division of the Central Labor Institute, Mumbai and the Work Physiology and Ergonomics division of the Central Mining Research Institute, Dhanbad, both affi liated to the Government of India. Thereafter, ergonomics has spread in sporadic bursts in the academic environment, defense, agriculture, and design sectors and in industry.
