Gendered Vulnerabilities, Discrimination and Abuse among Female Migrants - A Special Reference to Return Female Domestic Workers in Kerala, India

Reshmi R.S., International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Sayeed Unisa, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

Female labour migration is a new aspect in the context of globalization in developing countries like India. Although a reasonable proportion of migrants in India are originating from the state of Kerala, there is lack of information about issues related to female migration. The present paper, based on primary data collected from six villages in Kerala, focuses upon some of the issues of migrant female domestic workers. The analysis reveals that majority of the migrants had to work more than 15 hours per day and most of them did not receive any days off in a week. About 32 percent of them had faced some kind of discrimination and forty percent experienced some kind of exploitations such as long working hours, non-payment of salary, irregular payment and verbal or physical abuse. A considerable proportion had faced sexual exploitation from their employer or colleagues during their stay outside Kerala.