A third of Indian IT workers are shagged out after a year

ONE THIRD OF workers in the booming Indian IT industry develop RSI after a year, according to a world-renowned expert.

Dr. Deepak Sharan, RSI consultant to silicon valley companies including Hewlett Packard and Cisco, found after conducting what he said is the largest study of workplace RSI in the world, that the problem was rife in the Indian IT industry.

Sharan, medical director of the RECOUP Neuromusculoskeletal Rehabilitation Centre in Bangalore found in a survey of 30,000 Indian IT workers that 75 per cent had RSI.

"Over 50p per cent got injured within a year of starting their first computer dependent job," he said.

"Unlike in the West, where RSI is usually an illness affecting middle-aged women with chronic health disorders, Indian patients were aged 27 years," said Sharan in an email commentary on his survey.

"Males outnumbered females, and the workers were otherwise healthy, with many being gym regulars," he added.

Most cases uncovered by the survey were of Myofascial Pain Syndrome ("an exquisitely sensitive knot within the muscle belly") and Thoracic Outlet Syndrome ("compression of the nerves and blood vessels between the base of the neck and armpit").

Only 0.5 per cent were of the infamous Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. But, said Sharan: "All RSIs severely affect people's ability to work".

"RSI is usually relentlessly progressive and many untreated cases or poorly treated cases end up with a dreaded complication called CRPS, after which patients pretty much lose the use of the hands," he said.

"Forget typing, we have had patients who were even unable to perform simple activities like eating, bathing, dressing, opening door knobs or holding a tea cup," he added.

70 per cent of the surveyed cases had been misdiagnosed. The rest were merely given a general diagnosis of RSI, which Sharan said was not specific enough to find the correct medication. Two-thirds of them had not received training that would prevent the development of symptoms,
while a third had been given "incorrect ergonomic advice".

This does not appear to have been the moral issue portrayed by the Times of India yesterday, unless the morals in question are corporate. Sharon was quoted blaming the illness on the "incorrect use of iPods, mobile phones and play stations". He was in fact referring merely to 56 cases of RSI that had inflicted children. The Times story has been altered since its first publication. µ

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