UPDATE

Toxics Link has been working towards increasing compliance of bio-medical waste in the country and engages with State Pollution Control Boards and NGOs in different states. One of its engagements has been in the state of Rajasthan to increase compliance of the rules in the state and make it a model.

For its first phase, we conducted workshops in seven state divisions – Ajmer, Jaipur, Bharatpur, Udaipur, Kota, Jodhpur and Bikaner. The workshops were held on ‘Bio medical waste management and hazards of mercury’ in collaboration with Rajasthan SPCB; Department of Medical, Health and Family Welfare, senior health officials, block level institutions, Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facility representatives, etc.

Dr RS Chhipi, Additional Director, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Rajasthan was an important part of this project. He led many discussions throughout these workshops and acknowledged the efforts taken by our organisation to strengthen hospital based biomedical programmes. He also mentioned these workshops were a good platform for addressing the issues that are faced by healthcare facilities across the state and promised that the department along with Rajasthan SPCB and Toxics Link will come up with appropriate solutions.