A Study on the Impact of Poverty on Hygiene and Sanitary Issues Among the Rural Women in Tamilnadu with Special Reference to Most Backward, Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Communities

Healthy Women are the Prerequisite for Creating a Healthy Nation Women are the nerve center of the family. They are the first educators and weavers of the fabric of national integration and harbingers of harmony in the nation. Women being the chief health care providers take care of the family and community as a whole, the health problems of women should be identified both in qualitative and quantitative terms. Economically backward women (Rural, tribals, slums etc) are weaker sections of the society who have lagged behind in all fields. They are integral part of our civilization, yet they mark distinct difference from the main stream population in terms of resisting change. Those women face a number of risks of ill health including high rates of poverty, illiteracy, and harsh living environments, high rates of smoking and alcohol use and poor access to health care. They are deprived of educational, economical, political and legal rights. India is a land of rich ethnic diversity. Women constitute almost half of the total population in the world and out of which two third of the worlds adult illiterates are women. The health of women in particular is conceptualized within the social contact in which they are embedded. Since research in these areas of tribal women health status is sparse, it would be of immense value to study their health status and cultural pattern to acquire knowledge on it. As an economically backward woman occupies an important place in the socio-economic structure of her society, there is an urgent need to uplift the health and nutritional status of women. Focusing this, diversified efforts and concerted endeavors have to be undertaken to promote their status. effects of poverty, status and living style of economically backward SC/ST women, hygiene issues and challenges, hygiene practices in Tamilnadu.