Migration-Induced Feminization of Rural Economy: A Study on Left Behind Wives in Murshidabad, West Bengal
摘要
In strengthening ruralRural economic conditions, the left behindLeft behind (LB) members of migrant householdsHousehold in the origin place contribute significantly. Particularly LB wives of those migrant workers have been responsible and involved themselves in restoring and reviving the rural economyRural economy. Therefore, the feminizationFeminization of the rural economyRural economy through those migrant families has been the central point of the discourse of this chapter. This study has been carried out with primary data collected from migrant householdsHousehold of mainly five community development (CD) blocks of MurshidabadMurshidabad district, West Bengal. A total of 357 LB wives (141 working and 216 non-working LB wives) from migrant householdsHousehold are the main participants of this study. The objective of this empirical investigation is to show the engagement of LB wives in various economic activities in the absence of their husbands. The growing involvement of females in managing and adopting economic operations reveals the trend of migration-induced feminizationMigration-induced feminization of the economyFeminization of economy in migrant householdsHousehold. A multinomial logistic regression model was applied to estimate the factors that influence economic participation of LB wives. The results found that wives from nuclear families [RRR = 3.22, 95% CI = (1.48, 7.03)] are more likely to participate and wives from the SC category [RRR = 0.44, 95% CI = (0.19, 0.98)] and OBC category [RRR = 0.34, 95% CI = (0.16, 0.70)] are less likely to participate in economic activities compared to non-working LB wives. The povertyPoverty level of the migrant householdHousehold [RRR = 3.17 95% CI = (1.79, 5.59)] is strongly associated with the working status of LB wives. Again, migration properties like age and wage of migrants, remittanceRemittance, frequency of returning home, etc. are also responsible for influencing the economic work participation of LB wives. Analysis has revealed that higher wage of migrants negatively influences the working participation of LB wives. However, migration duration is positively associated with the working status of LB wives compared to non-working ones while all other variables are controlled.