ABSTRACT
Jharkhand, home to 34 tribal communities, has 26.2 percent of its population belonging to the tribes. According to NITI Aayog, 28.81 percent of Jharkhand's people are multidimensionally poor. This study focuses on research conducted with Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), Dalit, and Other Backward Caste (OBC) women who participated in the rural livelihood intervention, Economic Inclusion Program (EIP) in Lohardaga, Latehar, and Gumla districts. The EIP, modeled on the Graduation Approach helmed by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), aimed to reach the extreme poor effectively. Before the program, significant developmental deficits led to high migration to brick kilns among men and women, characterized by the lack of agency, neo-bondage, and distress. Brick-kiln employers often use advance wage payments to bind workers, requiring repayment through labor at below-market rates (Breman 2010).
The endline evaluation of the program shows a significant reduction in women migrating to brick kilns, from 70% to 28% (n = 458), while most men continue to migrate. The study employs the World Health Organization's (WHO) ‘Quality of Life’ framework to explore the reasons behind women's decisions to stay and pursue local livelihoods. Unlike the reductionist economic approach that looks at only economic indicators, the human-centric ‘Quality of Life’ lens holistically considers physical and psychological health, autonomy, social capital, personal relationships, and surroundings (WHO 1994).
The study compares the lived experiences and subjective perceptions of quality of life between two groups of women: those who stopped migrating to pursue local livelihoods and those who continue to work in brick kilns. The findings indicate that women who discontinued migration report a higher quality of life, better physical and psychological well-being, greater autonomy, and higher social capital. The chapter highlights how holistic interventions promoting livelihood diversification enable women to make informed choices about migration and livelihoods. The chapter argues, in line with the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) and the National Commission on Rural Labour (NCRL), for strengthening investments in rural infrastructure and livelihoods so that migration becomes an informed choice rather than an involuntary reaction to rural distress and indebtedness.
