The word "design" is generally associated only with intricate, exclusive, and expensive products. In the marketplace, the names of top designers are used to sell overpriced products in all fields, be it cars, aircraft, or even handbags.

However, design is not the exclusive preserve of overpaid designers sitting in air-conditioned studios. Often, common folk faced with recurrent problems come up with elegant and low-cost solutions involving the modification of existing products. Manufacturers of everyday items are often surprised to see the innovative and unintended uses of their products. Smartphones, WhatsApp, and the internet ensure that such design ideas are widely communicated and replicated. In view of the usefulness and popularity of these homegrown products, mainstream designers have been forced to acknowledge the existence of this genre of design, which is classified as "subsistence design", jugaad," and "frugal innovation."

The aim of the present project is to examine the design efforts of common people who are not design literate academically but who design products for the specific needs of their particular communities from the resources available to them, mostly on a shoestring budget.

India is a nation where the main occupation of the people in rural areas is agriculture and animal husbandry; in fact, India ranks first in milk production, accounting for 18.5 percent of the world's population. Even the urban areas are not left behind in fulfilling the local dairy needs of the people.

However, the availability of equipment to process the milk is very scarce and old-school, which has not changed for many years. People in villages still use muscular energy to make dairy products due to the unavailability of versatile equipment that can be used with their vessels. The frequent power cuts in these areas make it difficult to use modern electric devices for household use.

India is the second-largest brick producer (after China) in the brickmaking industry. Due to rapid urbanisation, demands for bricks are increasing from day to day.

The brick kiln industry is one of the major unorganised sectors in India, where most of the jobs are performed manually. While performing the job, the workers suffer biomechanically, physiologically, and psychophysically. The workers are also exposed to high concentrations of dust and temperatures. The sustained awkward squatting posture adopted by the workers for more than 6 to 8 hours imposes severe musculoskeletal stress and is thereby likely to cause permanent musculoskeletal injury to the workers. The human body is not suitable for this type of unnatural stress. As per our previous study, the average age of the brick kiln workers is 28 years. Due to tremendous work-related stresses, people beyond 40 years of age are seldom visible in this operation.

Previous studies in India showed that workers in brick-making industries suffer from assorted health problems due to awkward postures while making bricks and transferring heavy loads, heavy manual load handling, working under high environmental temperatures with high levels of dust, and facing extensive drudgery.

The purpose of the project is, therefore, to develop low-tech appropriate technology by introducing a versatile product that can help to reduce the drudgery in the most unplanned industry, which is the brick-making industry. It should create value for the human cost involved in such an intense process as brick moulding.

After China, India is the second-largest brick producer in the brickmaking industry. Due to rapid urbanisation, demands for bricks are increasing from day to day.

The brick kiln industry is one of the major unorganised sectors in India, where most of the jobs are performed manually. While performing the job, the workers suffer biomechanically, physiologically, and psychophysically. The workers are also exposed to high concentrations of dust and high temperatures. The sustained awkward squatting posture adopted by the workers for more than 6 to 8 hours imposes severe musculoskeletal stress and is thereby likely to cause permanent musculoskeletal injury to the workers. The human body is not suitable for this type of unnatural stress. As per our previous study, the average age of the brick kiln workers is 28 years. Due to tremendous work-related stresses, people beyond 40 years of age are seldom visible in this operation.

Previous studies in India showed that workers in brick-making industries suffer from acute health problems due to awkward postures and repetitive manual load handling while making and transferring bricks, heavy manual load handling, working under high environmental temperatures with high levels of dust, and facing extensive drudgery.

The purpose of the project is, therefore, to develop low-tech appropriate technology by introducing a versatile product that can help to reduce the drudgery in the most unplanned industry, which is the brick-making industry. It should create value for the human cost involved in such an intense process as brick moulding.