The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India's report last week which said every third child in Gujarat is undernourished created stir in the political and media circles. The same report (released on October 4) also examines the status of biomedical waste disposal in the state. The figures obtained by CAG do not reveal much. However, field visits by CAG team to select government-run healthcare establishments showed frequent flouting of Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules of 1998. As no government department maintains record of registration of non-govermental healthcare establishments, CAG could not scrutinise their functioning.
CAG test-checked 80 health centres and hospitals. Records revealed that only 14 of them were categorising waste and putting them in separate containers. The rest 56 were not segregating waste as required by the rules. "This resulted in improper segregation and consequential improper treatment posing health hazards," reads the report.
