**4.6 Perception of Workload of agriculture activities**

Physiological cost of operation is influenced by the health of operators, nutrition, basal rate and energy expended while working which will be indirectly measured by measuring oxygen consumption and pulse. Generally, person's subjective experience of a specific workload or rate of labor is more closely associated with pulse than to oxygen consumption during the performance of labor. Therefore, several research workers [48–52] have used pulse for assessment of physiological workload of the workers. [22] Indicated that farm women perceived significantly lowered exertion while performing the chosen farm activities with the improved tools compared to the utilization of traditional tools. According to this study [53], the impact of drudgery on women is that many respondents suffer from heavy physical strain and physical stress due to work overload i.e. 88.34 percent and 98.34 percent in Tarai and hill area. In addition, fewer respondents have the problem related with incidence of miscarriage i.e. 10 and 12 percent in Tarai and hill.
