ABSTRACT

Even sidewalk dwellers or the homeless, as distinct from other forms of the poor, do not constitute a meaningful category because they include different types of persons with different motivations for making their horne on the streets: some with families, others without, some temporary, others more permanently established, some choosing to do so because of convenience to work, others destitute,sick, or disabled who have no other alternative. Thus, too, with bustee dwellers, who must likewise be differentiated: some are families, others are single migrants sharing a room, others are businessmen and shopkeepers, others are scavengers and sweepers; some could afford better accommodations,

while others are teetering on the verge of being pushed out and becoming squatters. The squatters themselves are by no means homogeneous. Although many are ragpickers, domestic servants, and beggars, among them are also artisans and regularly paid workers. Then, most hidden from view and difficult to categorize, even to identify for that matter, are the genteel poor, the erstwhile bhadralok families who survive from hand to mouth on fixed rents or other precarious income. They try to maintain a middle-c1ass appearance while barely being able to keep their heads above water.