Short-term migration and women farmers

Abstract

Women have made significant contributions to agriculture in India. The current situation of rural transformation has brought to light women’s roles in agriculture. Typically, any discussion on this topic tends to focus on the most obvious trends; the proportion of women working in the agricultural sector as self-employed, unpaid help or wage labor. What is ignored is an important and interesting shift in women’s roles: women are increasingly participating in farms as managers and decision-makers. One of the principal drivers pushing women into farm management is male out-migration from rural to urban areas in search of a better life. But what happens to women left behind in these rural households?

Migration is an important strategy for livelihood diversification, particularly for rural households. In India, short-term migration, not permanent migration, is responsible for worker mobility, with studies showing men are more likely to migrate than women. Certainly, there will be some labor adjustment in the households left behind in the migrant’s origin community. How this is managed will depend on household size and structure (joint or nuclear family), social norms, and expectations of men and women’s responsibilities. It is reasonable to expect that these factors will affect men and women differentially. Read more at: https://casi.sas.upenn.edu/iit/hswaminathan