RESEARCH PROPOSAL

“A Critical Sociological Study of Migrant Female Domestic

Workers”
For Registration to the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
IN THE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

IIS (deemed to be) UNIVERSITY, JAIPUR

Submitted by
Aditi Katara
ICG/2018/25791

Under the Supervision of

Dr Pragya Sharma
Senior Assistant Professor

Department of Sociology
May, 2019
 INTRODUCTION

Migration- In sociological studies of migration involves the

movement of people across a specified boundary for the purpose
of establishing a new or semi-permanent residence. The
movement is often over long distances and from one country to
another. People may migrate as individuals, in family units or in
large group.

*Reasons for rural-urban migration in India-:

1. Village economy is mainly based on agriculture and people
without agricultural land find hard to sustain as there are hardly
any other economic activities. They are forced to migrate for
better opportunities.
2. Education and job is another reason for migration. Young
population migrates to cities for higher/technical degrees. After
completion, they get a job in cities. Emergence if IT sector is
one of the factor which has lead to migration in the working
class.
3. Most of the migration is through social network. People, if
they have relatives/friends/acquaintances in cities, they are ready
to move to cities and try their luck.
4. It has become more of a tradition to follow. It is more like,
“nothing is there in the village. The people have tendency that
my dad went and worked in the city. I will also go.”Many a
times it is the parents who condition their children that they
should move to cities for better livelihood.
5. Cosmopolitan culture is also deriving people to migrate to
cities. With the penetration of media in rural areas, people are
exposed to various culture and way of life. They do not hesitate
to try their luck in cities.
6. The social restrictions in employment like the caste system
also make people to migrate to cities where they can work freely
under the urban anonymity.
 TOOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION

The following tools will be used for the purpose of the study:

1. Schedule: For the purpose of collecting first-hand

information and facilitating comparison of data, a schedule will
be prepared. This schedule will be used for securing the
information from the respondents.

2. Unstructured Interview: Due to the qualitative nature of the

study, it is assumed that besides the questions included in the
schedule, certain supplementary questions will be needed to be
used. Hence an unstructured interview will be conducted on the
respondents.
3. Observation: To enable the investigator to view and verify
personally the condition of the respondents this technique will
be made use of.
4. Secondary sources: These sources help in providing certain
information which may be difficult to obtain otherwise.
Secondary sources namely, various handbooks and other public
documents,census,information collected by government records.
 AREA/UNIVERSE

The area for the purpose of the study includes Jaipur city (sumer
nagar vistar,civil lines and vaishali nagar). 200 respondents will
be selected for the purpose of the study from sumer nagar
vistar,civil lines and vaishali nagar area of Jaipur city.

SAMPLE-
The women of 20-50 years of age will be studied .The research
aims to sample around 200 domestic workers who have
migrated from Bengal. Methods include a variety of
methodologies including observation, interview schedule.

SAMPLING-
The method is non-random and purposive sampling.
 OBJECTIVES

1. To find out the causes of migration amongst female domestic

workers in Jaipur city.
2. To examine the lifecycle of female domestic workers.
3. To study the problems experienced by the migrant female
domestic workers.
4. To examine dynamics in social status, economic status and in
the field of culture system of female domestic workers due to
migration.
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1: Devi, Ambika, P, Geetha, K.T and Gomathi, K.R (2009):

She has looked at women workers in the health care industry
and at the relationship between their paid works on the one hand
and their unpaid work on the other as well as the health issues
they face.

2: Kanwaljit(2008)In this study argued that classification of

urban economy in LDLs into the formal and informal sector is
not sufficient. According to him, informal sector can further be
categorized into at least two-sectors, namely an intermediate
sector, which appears as a reservoir of dynamic entrepreneur and
community of the poor, which contains a large section of
residual unemployed labor.

3: Belwal, O.K (2007) He has examined the utility of the

concept of informal sector. He argued that any attempt to
demarcate the informal sector would provide rise to numerous
inconsistencies and difficulties.
4: Agarwal Praveen and Nangia, (2005) Immigration in
Delhi on the basis of empirical study in Calcutta has indicated
that Women have a target income level, which they try to
achieve with a view of survive. She found that over the period of
7 years, an increasing number of women were engaging in the
informal labor market even though the wage rate remained
almost stationary in the sector.

5: Rao [Link], Ramachandrudu, G. and Rao, Subba. N

(2004) Informal sector is normally a larger source of
employment for women than for men in the developing world.
Women labor force in informal sector is increasing because men
choose employment in the formal sector of the labor market. A
place where labor is exchanged for wages it is defined by
geography, education and technical expertise, occupation,
licensure or certification requirement, and job experience.
6: Gopal Iyer (2004) He has discussed about the domestic
workers continue to earn lower wages, usually below the state’s
minimum wages and exploited by employers and employment
agencies. Wages paid are usually low both in absolute as well as
compared to other occupations, even to other low productivity
activities. Gender pay gap is also exists in this sector.
Domestic workers are being treated as ‘invisible’ work
force. Live in domestics are often even locked up in house. In a
patriarchal society such a India’s cooking, washing and cleaning
have always been left women of the house. Since house work
has been linked to the lower castes, most domestic workers are
poorly paid and under paid. Since domestic work is not
regulated, employers can hire fire and treat such workers as they
please. They are often seen as non-persons and not even called
by name.

7: Joshi and Lobo, Norbert (2003 According to them, of all

services in India, there is not more unregulated or disorganized
form of than the domestic services. There are no regulated hours
of work for women in domestic services, nor have laws been
passed to protect them.
8: Sidhu M.S Rangi P.S. and Kaur, Tejinder (2003) He has
discussed about the Migrant Labor and Human Rights in India
has looked at the working women in the informal sector like
vending in the streets as performing a needless, unproductive
activity. She argued that these women would change jobs if they
had the chance too.

9: Joshi, M.V (1999) He have studied the maid servants in

Haryana. The study emphasizes that they are leading a miserable
life. They suffer from low wages, long hours of work shift in
nature of job, lack of freedom and low prestige due inferior
status of the job. Due to lack of coordinating their children are
neglected and familial relations became tense. The fragmented
nature of their job lack of education and low bargaining capacity
refrain them from organizing collectivity.

10: Choudhary,Anil Kumar (1998) It Opines that the system

of employment of inter-state migrant labor in construction
industry in an exploitive system prevalent in various states.
11: Joshi (1997) He has pointed out some general issues
concerning women in labor market. The issues include the
segregation of women in to certain occupation, wage
differentials between men and women for the same job, low and
falling work participation rates of women etc.

12: Das, Biswaroop (1994) In his study of women in informal

sector kerela has explained the nature of women participation in
then formal sector. He argued that though women’s earnings
contribute substantially to the household, this is more often than
not denigrated. Women to cope with physical hardships that
impact their health, they continue to be paid much lower wages
than men in the same category.

13: Bhatia, (1992) He has discussed that the women working

in cities and towns firstly constitute a small proportion to those
workers and secondly out of total members of women workers
the majority is engaged in low status occupations. She is of the
opinion that the factory employment opportunities to women
have declined due to technological changes and this is
accomplished by an increase in service sector employment such
as public, service, medical, health and education.
14: Choudhary,Ramesh Chandra (1991) A Case Study of
Samastipur district in Bihar has explained a completely
different dynamic, in an institutional and not an individual and
not an individual sense arises from the idea that the informal
sector is nothing more than a transitory phenomenon caused by
the massive expulsion from the agrarian rural economy. As
economic growth accelerates, the need for and significance of
employment in the informal sector declines and eventually little
or nothing of this ‘buffer zone’ will remain.

15: Oberai, 1983) Women and Society in India according to

model women on an average denote less effort of work activities
from men. However family status household responsibilities and
market human capital should mediate the relationship. This
model used to differentiate men’s work effort from women’s
work effect and this can be differences in work effort among
women.

16: Weinberg A.A (1975) A study of Mental Health and

Personal Adjustment in Israel”, People on the Move, indicated
the dominance of rural to urban migration in internal migration.
Although, the study came to different conclusion, they indicate a
modest increase in rural to urban migration. To fill the gap an in
depth analysis of gender dimension of rural to urban migration is
needed.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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(2009),”Rural Out Migration, Social Change: Vol.39 No.1,
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