Footloose and Fragmented: A Sociological Discourse on the Female Domestic Labour Migration out of Bengal

Abstract

In India and in any other developing countries one of the side effects of unprecedented population growth and lack of growth in formal industrial sector is rapid increase in internal migratory movement. Almost all Indian women migrate at least once in their life when they leave their natal home after marriage. As a footloose commodity in the labour market, female work forces a far more critical estrangement. Migration as a transforming experience can improve or worsen the position of women in families and society. The consequent feeling of insecurity and loneliness rings with a hopeless fear of losing their dignity and control over their bodies. This paper seeks to explore, with sociological inputs, the locations and dislocations of the female labour force, which is in the constant flux of migration out of Bengal.