Factors Influencing Attitude and Behaviour Concerning Waste Management in Riverbank Villages of Ganga: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The Ganga, most holy river in the Indian sub-continent crosses from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean,source for endurance for many individuals, serve water to 40% of the country’s population of 11 Indianstates. This study was done with the support of United Nations Development Program with the objectivesof understanding the factors influencing attitude and behaviour of the community concerning wastemanagement by studying 78 riverbank villages of Ganga at Shaibganj, Jharkhand.The study revealed that more than three-fifth of the family dumped their waste in open space, one-fourthburn the waste openly, one of ten households throw the waste directly into the river and dumped the wastenear the river, only few of the families were availing door to door collection/common bin facilities.Chi-Square test indicates a significant association between waste management with religion, caste, type offamily, age at marriage and SLI of the respondents. The study revealed that in comparison to Hindus, otherare significantly more likely to dispose wastewater to the river. Odds Ratio of General Caste, ScheduledTribe, Other Backward Caste are significantly more likely to have waste disposal system at place compare toScheduled Caste community. Regression analysis showed people from joint family are more likely to haveproper waste disposal system than nuclear family.Finding suggests relation among information, knowledge, and proper waste management, hence relevantknowledge will lead to positive attitude and actions of the community towards proper waste managementfor creating a safe environment and better health.