Why Men Migrate and Wives’ are Left-behind: Issues and Challenges from Rural Varanasi in India

It appears to be migrants’ practical consideration to leave some family members back home, and, indeed, it is often conceptualized as a rational “household strategy” in academic literature. The purpose of the paper is to study why wives are left-behind at origin due to husbands’ out-migration. Primary data has been collected during January-March 2010 by undertaking a complete house listing of six villages of Pindra block of Varanasi, a district in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Looking after household is one of the most pertinent grounds that prompt women to stay behind. This is a reason related to place of ‘origin’. The other reason stated by women is that there is no accommodation at the place where their husbands are working. So this is a reason related to place of ‘destination’. However, reason related to ‘origin’ stands apart from all other reasons.