Impact of Remittance on Rural People: A Case Study of saranamati Rural Municipality of Jhapa District

Abstract

This micro level study on ‘Impact of Remittance on Rural Women’ is confined to Saranamati Rural Municipality of Jhapa district located at the Eastern Development Region of Nepal. General objective of this study is to find out the impact of remittance in Saranamati Rural Municipality of Jhapa district. The specific objectives of this study are to analyze the characteristics of migrants' households, to explore the causes of migration in the study area and to compare the socio-economic status of remittance receivers before and after receiving remittance. The research design of the study is descriptive as well as analytical. Descriptive means, in this study all the primary data are presented in table and described in the figures of the table. Analytical means, there are various cause and effect relationships of foreign employment and migration which are logically linked and analyzed to make the study more robust. In this study, both primary and secondary data were collected from the Rural Municipality Profile, population census of 2011 and other available sources. The primary data were collected from field survey, first of all random samples were drawn for choosing the ward numbers 1, 4 and 9. Lists of 296 migrant households from selected wards were made and chosen the required sample households. After choosing the ward numbers, a total of 60 samples were chosen proportionately from each ward. In this study, primary data are analyzed by using the SPSS software by coding, recoding with frequency table and cross tabs. The study found that the majority of the village people do not have sufficient land, despite being farmer. All the represented households are engaged in subsistence farming. Foreign employment or labor migration has been an important source of income in the village to maintain livelihood of the household. Remittance is basically used for day to day food and other household requirements, pay debt, buy new land and houses. There is no investment in the productive sector. Most of the consequences of remittance are positive and some are negative as well. Improved living standard, increased socio-economic status of both male and female, and consumption pattern show positive consequences. Similarly, increase in divorce rate, conflict and crime, alcoholism are the negative impacts of remittance as well as foreign employment.