Assessment of Psychological Well-being of Waste-pickers of Mumbai, India

Abstract

Background and Objective: Waste-pickers work informally and earn hand to mouth by collecting and selling recyclable items out of municipal solid waste. Along with the opportunity for survival, waste picking also poses health hazards. The primary objective of the study was to assess the psychological health of waste-pickers of Mumbai using general health questionnaire (GHQ-12). Additionally, the study was carried out to determine the reliability and factor structure of the GHQ-12. Materials and Methods: Sample comprised 200 waste-pickers who were selected randomly from the communities near Deonar dumping site. Results: Results showed that around 70% of the respondents scored low on the GHQ-12 and a sizable proportion (32%) of them scored high, indicating an unhealthy psychological state. Reliability analyses suggest satisfactory results, with a Cronbachs alpha of 0.70. Meanwhile, factor analysis revealed that GHQ-12 was a measure of psychological distress, with a three-factor structure (psychological distress, social-emotional dysfunction and cognitive disorder), which jointly accounted for 54% of the variance. Conclusion: The findings of the study, therefore, affirmed that the GHQ-12 is a suitable measure of assessing the overall psychological well-being of waste-pickers.