Personal hygiene outside ones residence: public lavatories in the central area of the city of São Paulo. / Higiene pessoal fora da residência: os sanitários públicos na área central da cidade de São Paulo.

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

In the course of their civilizatory process, human groupings have been able to account for different answers as to places for the fulfillment of their physiological needs, their disposal and sanitation. The purpose of the present dissertation is to examine this issue and to study public restrooms in the central area of the city of São Paulo (City Halls Sé Subdivision) and their users, specifically workers not based in the area those who carry out some kind of economic activity in the streets. Personal hygiene is the expression used for the physiological functions of defecating, urinating and personal cleaning. As a fundamental right, a citizens health entails his/her total physical, mental and social wellbeing and is based on the definition of human needs and their fulfillment, a role that is assigned to the representatives of the public authority. In order to evaluate the performance of such a role the evolution of habits and customs related to personal hygiene is studied as well as the solutions found in the course of times to dispose of and treat human wastes. The discussion is on the social transformations derived from the industrialization process and the emergence of a working class which starts to occupy the urban fabric under insalubrious spaces and conditions, giving rise to the dissemination of epidemic diseases and the damaging of the social body, forcing the State to take over the peoples health. In São Paulo, the lack of timing of public policies with the socio-economic and cultural development of the population as well as the fast growth of the city result in a metropolis of extreme contrasts in terms of infrastructure, income distribution and access to education, health, work, housing, and transportation. These contrasts can be identified in the field research carried out with 360 workers not based in the central area of the city, in an effort to delineate the solutions they found to satisfy their personal hygiene when not in their houses. From the analysis of the management of the public restrooms services, offered by the municipal authorities, in public grounds of the city center, and from the experience of previous managers, and especially those from the Subway Railway, due to the similarity with this study in relation to location, demand and utilization of their restrooms, we try to characterize the existing challenges for the improvement of the ways to provide these services.

ASSUNTO(S)

city halls sé subdivision urbanization workers not based in the area subprefeitura sé arquitetura e urbanismo sanitários públicos saúde pública sanitation public restrooms public health urbanização trabalhadores sem base fixa

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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