Male Worker Migration and Women Empowerment: A case of Bihar, India

Abstract

Migration of population has been a recurrent phenomenon since the dawn of human history. Though its form has changed but it remains a dominant event in the global social system. In modern days also people migrate from underdeveloped areas to the developed ones in search of better opportunities. Several theories have been propounded to explain the occurrence of migration. A number of social, cultural, economic, spatial, climatic, demographic factors induce migration. Among them, the economic factors are considered as the primary reasons for inducing migration. Migration of male labour force from Bihar has increased during last two decades which prompted us to analyze the pattern of migration and its impact on the empowerment of women left behind at place of origin.  The incidence of migration is comparatively high in rainfed ecosystem due to undeveloped agriculture.  In Bihar, labour migration crossed the boundary of caste and class since migrants belonging to all castes and class are found migrating however short term migration seems to be the domain of lower caste and class whereas forward caste migrants prefer to migrate for long period.  The short term migrants are employed mainly as agricultural labours, sales person and riksha puller at place of destination because they are less educated and belong to low socio- economic strata of rural society whereas long term migrants are employed as guard, construction worker(mason),waiter in hotels and contractual workers in small scale industries. Level of women employment has increased on migrant households, particularly on poor households; however, work load of women has also increased. It has been observed that role of women of migrant households changed from unpaid female labour to managers of the household, however, they face problem in management of fund, technology and input-output marketing. There is a need to launch a programme for their training to improve their knowledge in financial, technological and marketing management.