Rice cultivation has an important friendly place in India and is the main human labor force that mostly used low level equipment tools. The women labor force in agriculture and allied sectors is estimated to be about 91 million, which is about 39% of all rural workers in the country. The equipment available for various agricultural operations was earlier designed for male workers keeping in view the male dominance in the Indian agricultural environment and the same was given to women regardless of their suitability for the job. However, women face various technical difficulties in handling these tools, leading to occupational health problems and ultimately reduced work efficiency. Rice is the staple food crop in India and its production reached a record 104.32 million tonnes in crop years 2011–2012 (July–June).
This activity includes sowing, threshing, weeding, harvesting, threshing and threshing of rice, which are very labor intensive. Women actively participate in all these operations of rice farming, but still use old agricultural tools and implements to carry out this activity. In the rice production system, farm women have to bend over the work surface, which is the main cause of heavy labor for tasks like transplanting, weeding, harvesting and threshing. But its modernization still remains and is traditionally practiced with the old agricultural tools available. For example, in villages, sowing of seeds is done by hand, weeding with a hoe, harvesting with a local (simple) sickle, and cleaning of grain with sieves and sieves. While operating these tools, a prone position is mainly followed, which leads to heavy work and serious health problems. Like back pain, knee pain, and sometimes women who drive it also get hurt. Therefore, there is a need to develop tools/equipment keeping in mind the suitability of women to work. Improved tools and equipment for rice cultivation: 
- Rice Seeder (Four Rows) Function: To sow rows of rice seeds grown in ponded fields. Brief Description: Consists of lug drive wheels, drive shafts, hyperboloid-shaped drums, and oscillating-type drawbeams. The drum has 18 holes of 10 mm diameter. To cast the sprouting seed into every watered field. The drum can be filled up to half its capacity with pre-germinated/germinated rice seeds. Then the drum lid can be closed and locked. The equipment is required to operate at a walking speed of 1-1.5 km per hour in a flooded field. During operation of the equipment, seed can be seen falling through the holes and the drum can be refilled when the drum is empty.
- Rice Transplanter (Two Rows) Function: To transplant 20-25 days old mat rice seedlings at 3-4 leaf stage in two rows simultaneously. Brief Description: It consists of frame, floats, seeding tray, operating handle, fingers (selector), tray drive unit and depth control mechanism. To operate the equipment, a mat-type nursery with 22 cm wide, 45 cm long and 1.5 cm soil thickness is required. After filling the excess water (leaving 25-50 mm of water) it is drained and the equipment can be operated from next morning. In order for the mat to slide smoothly, it is necessary to spray a little water on the machine tray before loading the mat. After lifting the operating handle, it can be gently pushed down to push stored seedlings into the tray for transplanting. A worker has to walk backwards to operate the rice transplanter and pull it after each bump. The seedling mat can be recharged on the equipment tray when the seedling is about to run out.
- Cone Wedding Functions:
To pull out weeds and bury them between permanent rows of wet land rice crops. Two cut rollers, one behind the other, are installed under a long T-handle. To prevent the unit from sinking into the ground, a float is provided at the front of the unit. 
- Improved Sickle Function For harvesting rice crops:
It consists of serrated blade, ferrule and wooden handle. With this sickle (serrated) cutting of crop stalk is being done by sawing action as against the impact or pulling action in case of local (plain) sickle. This improved sickle is light in weight i.e., 180 g as compared to local one having weight 350 g, thus reduces the drudgery during harvesting operation. Benefits over traditional method: With the use of improved sickle there is about 15% saving in cardiac cost of workers per unit of output as compared to local sickle. It provides safety to the worker due to its better construction. Also, serrated sickle does not require sharpening of the cutting edge.
- Pedal operated Paddy Thresher Function:
It consists of a cylinder with aluminum strips. The wire loops are embedded / welded on these strips. The cylinder is given a rotary motion from the foot pedal through a power transmission system. The paddy bundles are threshed by holding it on rotating drum. It gives the output of about 35 kg/hr. 
- Paddy Winnower Function for cleaning grain from impurities after harvesting:
It consists of main frame, handle, gear mechanism, volute case, fan, hopper, outlets for clean grain and for chaff. This machine is operated by women worker in standing posture. Two women workers are required for operating machine, one woman operates the machine and other woman feeds the hopper and separates the cleaned grain. The machine can be easily operated by women while seating on chair or stool. Capacity of this machine is about 242 kg/hr. By using improved tools, drudgery can be reduced in almost at every stages of operation i.e., in sowing, transplanting, weeding, and threshing. The farm women can operate above mentioned equipment easily as they are basically developed for them, considering women anthropometric data and their capability. Also these equipments could be used on custom hiring for income generation apart from reducing drudgery. Thus, issues of drudgery and health problems can be addressed by using these improved tools and also there would be improvement in their livelihood.