When Daughters Migrate and Mothers Stay at Home - Paid work of girl children in West Bengal, India

Public Seminar

Monday 16th May 2011, 11am to 12.30pm, Room V108, Tower 2, LSE

Speaker: Deepita Chakravarty

Discussants: Penny Vera-Sanso and Kalpana Wilson

Chair: Ruth Kattumuri

As many of the discriminatory practices against girl children and women primarily take place within the household, the family seems to have a crucial role in determining such outcomes. However, it needs to be remembered that the decisions taken by the household or for that matter the head of the household (often male) are informed by the broader socio-economic and cultural practices. This paper tries to understand the possible role of the family in determining the country’s highest work participation rate of urban girl children in the Indian state of West Bengal with a historical bias against women’s participation in paid outside work. In this context, the paper also explores the possible outcomes in the character of gender relations within the household with the changes in the relative decision making powers of the different adult members of the family. Apart from secondary information the analysis is informed by long interactions with sixty families in Kolkata and the neighbouring districts with a history of sending girl children for work.

Additional Details

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Speakers