WOMEN lobar migration ,remittances,and gender transformation in Pokhara Nepal

Abstract

The studyhas investigated and analyzed the effects of the global capitalist market, particularly women's labor migration, on gender transformation. It has been shown by many previous studies that women's labor migration has multifaceted effects on the economic, educational, health, and social development of the families left behind. The Nepali government, on the one hand, discourages female labor migration due to the rise in physical assault in foreign lands; on the other hand, the patriarchal ideologies attached to gender limit women's participation in the public sphere and decrease their empowerment ratio. This study has been carried out among the slum community in Pokhara, Nepal, to investigate the reconstruction of traditional gender practices due to the accumulation of various capitals intransnational space. In Nepal, there have been increasing trends of women's labor migration in the last ten years, i.e., from 8595 in 2008/2009 to 20578 in 2018/2019, as per the Nepal Labor Migration Report 2020. The mobility of women's migration doesn’tonly boost national income but also increases family income. Thus, women's labor migration has multifaceted effects on the families left behind as well as on national GDP growth. The study has been guided by Marxian theory, structuration theory, and feminist standpoint theory, which explain the role of migration and remittances in the social construction of gender roles. Gender as a global and continuing socio-cultural process can be changed by the economic, social, symbolic, and cultural capital that migrants acquire in transnational space. Marx agrees that change in the breadwinner role of women not only emancipates women from patriarchal practices but also empowers them. Migration is the process of structuration in which macro-and microstructures interact with one another to affect social actors’ agency, which in turn affects the structures. Data from secondary and primary sources, i.e., the field survey, was used to support these arguments. A total of 198 households of women who had migrated at least three years before the survey were selected for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used. The findings revealed a changing scenario of gender transformation in all three types of households: pre-migration, during migration, and post-migration. During migration and post-migration, migrant women became the key breadwinners of the family and became part of the decision-making process. In the pre-migration period, these women were bound by traditional patriarchal roles. In post-migration households, many women have to pass through readjustment problems, both in families and communities. The long-term physical absence of women from home raises a subject of dignity, leading to mental suffering. Either these women knock on the door of the next migration or they are involved in some type of income-generation activity.The new power and attitudes gained through migration are one dimension of gender transformation. The underlying household structure has been modified, with women as breadwinners and other family members, especially men, becoming supportive hands for her. In addition, the social organization of a household’s relationships, tasks, and responsibilities has changed, with women and girls proving themselves as resource providers. This is a watershed moment in gender transformation, manifested in various forms in the everyday private orbit of life. Women as breadwinners of the family replace the traditional patriarchal norms and values and become the central pillar of development. Thus, this study focuses on changing traditional gender roles and responsibilities in transnational space in relations with various forms of capital formation.