This paper examines the impact of husbands' migration on the lives of women left behind. Using data from the India Human Development Survey 2005, we focus on two dimensions of women's lives: women's autonomy and control over their lives; and women's labour force participation. Results suggest that household structure forms the key mediating factor through which husbands' absence affects women. Women not residing in extended families are faced with both higher levels of responsibilities and greater autonomy, while women who live in extended households do not experience these demands or benefits. Keywords migration; India; gender; family structure; IHDS; internal migration; consequences of migration; women's labour force participation; women's autonomy; women's mobility; intra-household decisionsResearch on migration has increasingly focused on women migrants (Bilsborrow 1992) and has also recognized the gendered nature of the migration process (Whiteford 1978; HondagneuSotelo 1992;Chin 1997;Yeoh et al. 1999;Lutz 2002;Curran and Rivero-Fuentes 2003;Morokvasic 2004;Shah 2004). However, surprisingly little attention is directed to women who are not migrants themselves but are deeply affected by the migration process: women whose husbands have migrated in search of work leaving them behind (Hugo 2000); a gap this paper seeks to fill.Unlike other demographic phenomena such as birth and death, migration is a process rather than an event. Diversity seems to be the norm when it comes to characterizing migration with respect to reasons for departure, length of migration, frequency of return to place of origin and ties to home communities (Goldscheider 1987;Massey et al. 1990;Lucas 1997).Nevertheless, a common pattern characterizing migration of men in developing countries is that they leave their wives and children in the place of origin while they migrate in search of work. For instance, a 'well-documented strategy' among Mexican rural households is for the men to migrate in search of employment while their families remain at home (Kanaiaupuni 2000). US immigration policies have supported and strengthened this form of migration through provisions that make it easier for women to legally migrate as spouses of male † Address for correspondence: Department of Sociology, 2112 Art-Sociology Building, University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742, United States of America. Email: sdesai@socy.umd.edu. NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript J Popul Res (Canberra). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2010 August 5. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript migrants, but until 1952 women could not legally sponsor their husbands as migrants. The rotation system or guest worker immigration policy that has been adopted in postwar Western Europe also encourages this pattern of solo male migration. This policy is tailored to meet a short-term demand for labour, with single males rather than entire families being given temporary work permits which are renewed annually. When economic conditions change...

People with epilepsy frequently experience problems in marriage including reduced marital prospects, poor marital outcomes and diminished quality of married life. Conversely, marriage might impact epilepsy self-management and quality of life in people with epilepsy. There is little in published literature on marriage and epilepsy, so there is a need for psycho-behavioral research. Here, we focus on arranged marriages which, although now rare in western cultures, are widely prevalent in South Asian communities. Arranged marriages, in which families rather than individuals choose marital partners, are particularly problematic because epilepsy is frequently hidden during marital negotiations as well as later. From the psycho-behavioral perspective, marital prospects, outcomes and satisfaction should be examined in relation to the type of marriage (arranged vs. love) and whether or not epilepsy is hidden. Additionally, culturally-relevant tools to appraise marital quality and epilepsy self-management within marriage should be developed. The main objective should be to develop a multi-sectorial action plan with interventions at several different levels involving different stakeholders to mitigate stigma associated with epilepsy in matrimony.

International and Comparative Education's (BAICE) Seedcorn Fund, and benefitted from the feedback of attendees at a seminar hosted by the University of Cambridge's Research for Equitable Access and Learning Centre. The authors would like to thank the partners, field investigators, families and children who made this study possible.

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