ABSTRACT
Women constitute a substantial section of the Indian migrant population; yet it has been argued that India has not witnessed “feminization of migration.” Among the reasons for migration, migration for economic reasons accounts for only 3 percent of total population. Instead, women’s migration in India has largely been understood through the prism of associational migration, particularly for marriage. Marital customs in India are largely virilocal in nature, with women moving from natal houses to spousal residences upon marriage. Data from Census 2011 indicates that almost 84 percent women’s migration was due to marriage (70%) or associational (14%) reasons. The chapter however argues that interpreting women’s migration merely as a consequence of marriage-related issues weakens their agency when they seek to enter the labor markets at the destination. It dwells upon how the Indian data systems have been unable to provide a panoramic view of women’s migration, by largely highlighting women as wives and associational migrants. Such a limited association disallows them to negotiate their position within the labor force as they become relegated as flexible and secondary workers in the informal sector.
