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Happiness, Well-Being, Health and Leisure: An Experience in Guijan Ghat, Tinsukia, Assam, India

Monday, 11 July 2016: 11:30
Location: Dachgeschoss (Juridicum)
Oral Presentation
Pranjal SARMA, Department of Sociology, Dibrugarh University, Assam, India, India
This is an empirical study focusing on happiness, well-being, health and leisure of the people residing in different villages in and around Guijan Ghat,which is located near Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, in the District of Tinsukia, Assam, India.

A conglomeration of different communities like Assamese, Bengali, Bihari, Mising and Nepalis are the inhabitants of the villages like Guijan Village, Erasuti village and forest villages like Laika, Pamua and Fasidiya on the bank of river Brahmaputra near Dibru-Saikhowa National Park. This is a tourist destination, where tourists visit these areas for cruising,  boating, food and lodging,  bird watching along with feral horses, wild buffaloes, river dolphins, orchids, sunrise and sunset and so on. Local tourists come here for various occasional parties, meetings and conference. There are several houseboats, resorts, eco camps and small boats in the locality. People living here has a different lifestyle. In the forest villages, the economy is mainly agricultural economy. They do shifting cultivation. Other villagers are engaged in fishing, dairy and vegetable production. They mainly pass time in different activities like boating, collecting timber for business, firewood collection from river and forest, gambling, guiding tourists, swimming and so on. They are habituated with swimming which is a good exercise for health and well-being. They spend more time with nature. They cook food with firewood. Villagers enjoy taking their local rice beer.

As they are mostly engaged with nature, they are fortunate and in a convenient position. In fact they have good health and routinely happy and content. In this paper we will collect data through observation and interview method. We will interview villagers, tourists, businessman and the senior citizens of the locality near the Dibru-Saikhowa National park.