ASSOCIATION BETWEEN WORK PLACE DISCRIMINATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESSED AMONG WASTE PICKERS INA METROPOLIS

ABSTRACT Discrimination refers to the unfair and prejudiced treatment of individuals or groups based on their perceived differences, such as race, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. It can manifest in various forms, including unequal access to opportunities, resources, or rights, as well as social exclusion and verbal or physical abuse. While, waste pickers are individuals who earn their livelihood by collecting, sorting, and sometimes selling recyclable materials and valuable items from waste and garbage. They play a crucial role in the recycling and waste management process, particularly in areas where formal waste collection and recycling systems may be limited or inadequate. This study seeks to assess the association between work place discrimination and psychological distressed among waste pickers in a metropolis. The GHQ-12 was selected as a screen ing instrument for psychological issues that the waste-pickers had experienced previously. The GHQ was created by Goldberg and has been extensively utilized as a screening tool to determine if a person is at risk of acquiring a psychiatric condition in a variety of cultural contexts. To find the underlying variables that would ultimately aid in the explanation of the correlation patterns among the GHQ-12 variables, a factor analysis was carried out using a 14-item survey, the results revealed that a sizable percentage of waste-pickers may face psychological issues in the future. The results of this study may be useful to workers in other conservation-related fields in addition to waste-pickers.