LIVELIHOOD AND HEALTH CHALLENGES OF RIVERINE COMMUNITIES OF THE RIVER GANGA Supported by July 2020 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF APPLIED ECONOMIC RESEARCH Parisila Bhawan, 11 Indraprastha Estate, New Delhi 110 002, India Tel: +91-11-61202698, Fax: +91-11-23370164
[email protected] www.ncaer.org NCAER | Quality . Relevance . Impact © National Council of Applied Economic Research, 2020 All rights reserved. The material in this publication is copyrighted. NCAER encourages the dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. Published by Professor Anil K. Sharma Secretary and Operations Director, NCAER The National Council of Applied Economic Research Parisila Bhawan, 11, Indraprastha Estate New Delhi–110 002 Tel: +91-11-61202698 Fax: +91-11-2337-0164
[email protected] www.ncaer.org Page | iii Foreword The river Ganga has for centuries been considered India’s holiest river, with millions believing that its waters offer salvation to its devotees. Beyond its spiritual significance, the river offers livelihoods to many riverine communities along its banks, and its waters are widely used for bathing, drinking and fishing. In recent times, there has been mounting concern about the levels of pollution in the river and the deteriorating quality of its water. Several flagship government programmes and projects in the past three decades have sought to clean the Ganga, including the Ganga Action Plan Phases I and II and the Namami Gange National Mission for Clean Ganga launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015. These projects have sought to tackle pollution and to rejuvenate the river’s waters. Government agencies and research institutions have been tracking the effectiveness of these projects by monitoring data on the river’s water quality.