The Clarion- International Multidisciplinary Journal
Year : 2012, Volume : 1, Issue : 2
First page : ( 205) Last page : ( 212)
Print ISSN : 2277-1697. Online ISSN : 2277-937X.

Women in-migrants in urban informal sectors of a metropolitan city of Assam, India

Bhuyan Zona*, Mohapatra A. C.

Department of Geography, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India

*Corresponding author: zbhuyan@gmail.com

Online published on 2 July, 2012.

Abstract

This paper examines the characteristics of occupational patterns of in-migrant women and non-migrant women workers in urban informal sector in the city of Guwahati in the North Eastern part of India. The questionnaire survey across 500 respondents provided the primary data. The analysis of the data is based on percentages and cross tabulations to explore the relationships between the demographic attributes and economic characteristics. Research findings reveal that of the 500 (five hundred) total respondents, more than half (91.6 per cent) of the respondents have migrated from neighbouring and distant areas and only 8.4 per cent are native to Guwahati city. Of the 458 migrant workers, 62.01 per cent of the women in the informal sector are recent migrants (<1year to 5–10 years) where they have migrated from the neighbouring areas to eke out a living in various informal sectors. About 37.99 per cent of the women have migrated long time back around more than 10 years or so and that these women seem to have found a much more stable job in the informal sectors than those who have recently migrated. Of the total migrant women workers, 58.95 per cent have migrated to the city in search of better work opportunities, 25.76 per cent for marriage, 11.35 per cent for poverty, 2.40 per cent for other various reasons and 0.87 per cent for education. The rest 0.66 per cent of the respondents have migrated because of natural calamity. The paper notes some of the important implications of urban unorganized sectors on the economic aspects such as income and the proportion of monthly expenses covered by income.

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Keywords

In-migrants, occupation, urban informal sector.

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