ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between gender, profession, and migration. Further, it briefly discusses migration trends and their outcomes. It traces the emerging migration patterns in India and the various issues regarding them. Migrants are getting attracted to new destinations because of globalization, urbanization, and changes in socio-economic conditions. Confinement of migration to lower socio-economic classes can be seen in emerging migration patterns. Several states in our country are relying on interstate migration as a solution to cope with domestic shortages of waged labourers. The movement of waged labourers across internal borders is nothing new. However, this chapter will focus on left behind women, especially from the Jammu region, and on the dislocation of identity of women within a recognizable habitat towards an alien identity in the same region with identical culture and people. Thus, this chapter will try to address the nuances of certain issues in gender studies and will further look into the ability of women who are trying to cope with their present circumstances in the absence of their male partners who work outside. This chapter will also try to focus on challenges faced by women when rearing their children, interacting with the outside world, and obtaining freedom in the absence of their husbands.
Special attention is paid here to highlighting the impact, both positive and negative, of the absence of males on the overall situation of females. Here, the context of study is with respect to the Dogra community of the Jammu region, as this society is quite patriarchal in nature. Two distinct types of methodologies will be employed in collecting information for this study. The first will be collecting secondary data on the issue of the migrant population and their wives left at their place of birth from a census. Secondary literature will be used to understand migration trends. Further, this data will be enhanced by adding a set of data collected from two major locations where the population chiefly comprises left behind females or from where a maximum number of male members have migrated out alone, leaving their entire family behind. Moreover, a good deal of qualitative data will be collected, as this study needs to focus on the understanding of society towards left behind females. It will also throw light on the perceptions of those females (left behind) on their position both in the absence and presence of their husbands. For both qualitative and quantitative study, different structured as well as unstructured (informal) schedules will be developed separately.
