POVERTY AND THE NEVER ENDING FIGHT FOR HEALTH AND HYGIENE OF HOMELESS BEGGARS NEAR THE SUKRESWAR TEMPLE, GUWAHATI: A STUDY

Abstract According to the World Bank, „Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being‟. This precise definition of poverty brings another question as to what does well-being stand for. Well-being may be described as the command over commodities, over resources or the accessibility of basic necessities of life. The day to day needs of human beings are wide and it only grows but never comes to an end. Poverty may be tied to a specific type of consumption; for example, people could be house poor or food poor or health poor. The homeless beggars are the people living in the most disadvantageous position. Their survival and well-being is completely dependent on the mercy of others. Even for their basic two time daily meal they wait for the sympathy of the passersby‟s. Hygiene is a set of practices performed for the preservation of health. On a day to day basis people are exposed to things like dust, smoke, pollution, bacteria, traffic fuels etc. Hence it is necessary to maintain a good personal hygiene in order to be better equipped to fight diseases and illness. However, maintaining good hygiene can be a big challenge for the poor or rather for the people living in a situation of extreme poverty. Beggary is such an extreme situation of poverty wherein a person appeals to others for the material help by word or gestures. For the people affected by severe poverty, health situations are greatly compromised because of inadequate sanitation and hygiene. Demands for safe and adequate drinking water, pakka dwellings for the poor, proper latrine facilities are often been raised and even a lot of stress is been made on these issues whether by government, Civil Society Organisations or by public spirited individuals. But what about the health and hygiene conditions of those who are not privileged enough to have a roof over their head. This paper makes a study on the homeless beggars who have settled in the pavements near the Sukreswar Temple, Guwahati. They are the people who live at the mercy of others even for © Universal Multidisciplinary Research Institute Pvt Ltd 436 International Journal of Law and Legal Jurisprudence Studies :ISSN:2348-8212:Volume 3 Issue 3 their meal. So are the authorities being able to pay importance to the sanitary needs of these homeless beggars? In this study interview method will be used wherein self structured questions will be asked to the beggars found near the Sukreswar Temple for data collection. The main objective of this paper is to identify the link between poverty, good health and economic development. Further, the researchers will also try to suggest some possible steps that can be taken to fill the gap of inadequacy of the health and hygiene initiatives taken by government.