Seasonal masculinities: seasonal labor migration and masculinities in rural western India

Abstract

In this research article, I study seasonal labor migration in rural western India to understand gender negotiations in the course of labor migration. Based on qualitative research conducted in six villages in rural Maharashtra state in Western India during the early Kharif cropping season in 2014 and during Kharif and Rabi cropping seasons in 2015-16, I examine gendered labor in migrant home communities and at various rural and urban employment destinations, the relationship of labor to the social construction of masculinities, and gender negotiations across space. I show that in their home communities, the politics of resistance of returnee laborers can be understood by examining how returnee men deploy 'protest masculinities' to subvert claims on their body and labor by elite men who have historically been in a dominant relationship with the laborers. Yet, these protest masculinities are buttressed by the continued exploitation of women's labor. I also show the flexibility of masculinities. More broadly, I show that migrant destinations themselves are gendered spaces that are constructed by the active consensual work of women and male migrants and employers alike. Second, seasonal migrants enter migration cycles from rural spaces that are gendered, both in production and social reproduction. I find that rural workplaces are the preferred choice of destination for migrant women; a choice that migrant men find reasonable. This is so because rural destinations are already gendered as spaces conducive for social reproduction and discursively constructed in the same terms as the idealized woman subject.

Factors Affecting Endogenous Income of Informal Laborers Suffering Economically Social Exclusion in Vietnam’s Northern Mountainous Area

“…Non-agricultural activities without a labor contract performed in countries with the transitional economy contribute between 20-70% to workers' real income (Mishra, 2018). In other words, to make ends meet, informal workers in rural areas, apart from working in agriculture, are also engaged in different industries' production, business, and services (Rahe and Hause, 2020;Rai, 2020). Besides, to the money amount achieved by workers' participation in the labor market, they also receive income from property leases, government subsidies, and support from family, relatives, etc.…”

The geographies of intermediation: Labor intermediaries, labor migration, and cane harvesting in rural western India

“…This research is part of a larger project to examine labor migration and social change in rural western India (Rai, 2013, 2018a, 2018b, 2019; Rai and Smucker, 2016). In Yavatmal district, I interviewed all the truckers and Muqaddams in five villages, and I conducted a focus-group discussion with truckers and Muqaddams in the sixth village.…”

Seasonal Migration as a Livelihood Strategy of Women Agricultural Labourers in Soul Ponamara Mouza of Hirbandh Block, Bankura District, West Bengal

“…Studies of Deshingkar and Daniel (2003), Islam et al (2019), Keshri and Bhagat (2010), Khatun and Roy (2016), Rafique (2003), Rai (2020), Rogaly and Coppard (2003) and Rogaly et al (2001) have shown the importance of seasonal migration in livelihood strategies of the SEBLP in rural areas and has been increasingly becoming an accumulative alternative for them. Numerous studies (Debnath, 2020;Garikipati, 2008;Ghosh and Mal, 2017;Keshri and Bhagat, 2010;Keshri and Bhagat, 2012;Rademacher-Schulz et al, 2014;Rafique, 2003;Rogaly and Coppard, 2003;Rogaly et al, 2001) have pointed out several factors of seasonal migration, where job opportunities and poverty are the primary reasons behind seasonal migration.…”

“…In India, seasonal migration of agricultural labourers is an essential process among SEBLP for their survival in the slack season (De Haan, Brock & Coulibaly, 2002;Keshri and Bhagat, 2013;Singh et al, 2011;Sundari, 2005). Their mobility is linked either directly or indirectly with the seasonal trough in the agricultural production cycle of the home region (Agarwal, 1990;Beck, 1989) and it follows the rhythm of crop harvest cycles in migrant destinations and home villages (Rai, 2020). Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa are the dominant states of seasonal migration where young rural people used to migrate during the season of crop harvesting and sowing with least women participation (Rai, 2020;Thapa and Yadav, 2015).…”

“…Their mobility is linked either directly or indirectly with the seasonal trough in the agricultural production cycle of the home region (Agarwal, 1990;Beck, 1989) and it follows the rhythm of crop harvest cycles in migrant destinations and home villages (Rai, 2020). Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa are the dominant states of seasonal migration where young rural people used to migrate during the season of crop harvesting and sowing with least women participation (Rai, 2020;Thapa and Yadav, 2015). According to Ravenstein's Law of Migration (1889), women migration occurs mainly in a short distance and for the economic cause.…”