Health Disparity among Wives of Out-migrant and Non-Migrant Husbands in Rural Garhwal, India

Health is another important dimension of welfare that may be impacted- being left behind and lead to potential health problems. It becomes important to see that, ‘What effects does migration of husbands has on the wives that they left behind?’ ‘Are the wives left behind getting the benefits of their husbands working outside?’ Specifically this study asked for the impact of out-migration of husbands on the health of wives. Primary data has been collected in rural area of Garhwal, a district in the state of Uttarakhand in India. The total sample size is 262 left-behind wives due to husbands’ out-migration and 256 wives of non-migrants. There is no sign that wife get sick, suffer from RTI/STI, self-reported health worsens as a result of an out-migration of husband except mental health. Coefficient for wives of out-migrant husband has negative sign which means that this group of wives are less likely to assign higher rating in their status of mental health. Wives of both the groups were asked to rank their health. The percentage distribution across both the group is not showing much difference. There is no sign that self-reported health worsens as a result of a household member’s migration.