Labouring Brick by Brick: An Investigative Study of Female Migrant Construction Workers in Mysore City, Karnataka, India

Abstract

Various Indian census data shows rural to urban migration has been noticeably increasing, especially since 1971. Migration has a history of time immemorial; migration has both positive and negative consequences. It has a large impact on living standards, income and employment of the migrants and has increased nowadays because of industrialization, globalization and the privatization, rural to urban migration is a very common phenomenon today. People migrate to cities in searching up better employment and other opportunities. One of the major issues in case of migration system India is the seasonal nature of migration. Poverty unemployment and under-employment of the parents are the major social reasons forcing women to do some odd jobs to supplement the meager family income. Migrant's construction workers are being paid very low while compared to the local workers. Mediators heavily exploit the workers. The socio-economic conditions of female migrant's workers are very pathetic. This paper is based on the study conducted in Mysore to find out the plight of the migrant female construction workers in Mysore, south Karnataka and this paper concludes that the level of socio-economic development of the construction workers is the need of the hour.