BIO-MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT IN RURAL HEALTH INSTITUTIONS: LEGAL AND POLICY DEFICIENCIES IN INDIA

Rural primary health services are inextricably linked to healthcare facilities' biomedical waste (BMW) management, but they all have serious issues.Although the Bio-Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, seem strong, rural healthcare facilities have low compliance rates.Lack of infrastructure, monitoring systems, treatment centre access, and inter-departmental coordination are the main causes of this inadequacy.In this paper, I examine legal and legislative barriers to rural biological waste management, focusing on regulatory implementation, institutional alignment, and capacity.I believe that the severe implementation gap, not the legislative framework, is the main barrier, based on CPCB reports, NGT decisions, and the latest empirical data.Thus, to close this gap, I propose a set of recommendations to improve district governance, finances, and monitoring.