Impact of Male Out-Migration on Lives of Left Behind Women in Rural India: Evidence from NFHS-3

Sujata Ganguly, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Two divergent views confront each other from the perspective of the management of family affairs by left behind women due to male out-migration. Some opine that left behind women take on active roles in the management of family affairs whereas others believe that many are confronted for the first time with major responsibilities and are ill-prepared to handle those responsibilities on their own. Hence, an attempt has been made in this paper to do a comparative study of women from rural India whose husbands have out-migrated (left behind women) and those who stay with their husbands (stay-put) especially focusing on decision making power with the help of NFHS-3 (2005-2006) data. It has been found that decision making power is higher among left behind women compared to women who are staying with their husbands. However, this finding is subjected to certain contextual factors.