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Women Migration from South Asia: Emerging Issues

Formal regime for migration within Nepal and India; Sri Lanka and India exist ... Although Bangladesh and Nepal framed new policies their implementation has to be ensured ...

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Women Migration from South Asia: Emerging Issues

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    1. Women Migration from South Asia: Emerging Issues

    Professor Tasneem Siddiqui RMMRU University of Dhaka

    2. Region wise percentage of Female Migrants

    3. Percentage of female migrants in South Asia

    4. Similar destination countries

    Saudi Arabia , Kuwait, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea Migration within South Asia Maldives is the only South Asian country which formally receives short term contract workers Formal regime for migration within Nepal and India; Sri Lanka and India exist No regime exists for migration of low skilled workers among India, Bangladesh and Pakistan

    5. Sectors of Employment Women migrants from South Asia predominantly involved in domestic work followed by manufacturing. Small number of them also work as Nurses Educational level Sri Lankan workers possess much higher educational background, almost all of them are literate, a significant no. of them passed school finals. 80% of the Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan women migrants are either illiterate or received some elementary schooling Gender segregated data on India and Pakistan are not available

    6. Marital Status More than 50% women workers of Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka were married when they first migrated Age A large number of South Asian women migrated at very early age. Age group of Sri Lankan women migrants during first migration was higher compared to Bangladesh and Nepal.

    7. Remittance Flow to South Asia: 2007

    8. Legal Framework

    Emigration and Labour Related Acts of South Asia. Bangladesh: Emigration Ordinance 1982 India: Emigration act, 1983. Nepal: Nepal Labour Act 2048, Labour (First Amendment) Act, 2054 (1998) Pakistan: The Emigration Ordinance, 1979 with the Emigration Rules, 1979 Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment Act, No. 21 of 1985

    9. Policy

    Among South Asian countries only Sri Lanka pursued proactive policy to encourage female migration. Rest of the countries tried to stop migration of low skilled and unskilled women through imposing ban or restriction. In South Asia Bangladesh is the first to develop an overseas employment policy (2006) followed by Nepal (2007). These policies for the first time recognise women’s right to migrate and commit states to facilitate such migration.

    10. Proactive measures taken by the state of Sri Lanka

    Mandatory pre-departure skill and awareness trainings Compulsory registration of workers with SLBFE Free insurance coverage Pension scheme Low interest pre-departure loans Low interest housing loan Scholarship for migrant children Distribution of school books and equipment Health camps for left behind families

    11. Proactive measures taken in Bangladesh

    Establishment of an online database with photo IDs and with access to BMET offices, airport and embassy Four private banks started loan schemes for bearing the cost of migration Under a Challenge Fund programme, a telephone company is establishing call centre for providing information to women migrants National level thematic media campaigns, one on Safe migration and the other on Remittances Formation of migrant’s rights protection committee at migrant intensive areas

    14. Play PSA

    15. Emerging Issues

    Policy Except Sri Lanka all other sending countries of South Asia pursue policy which restrict migration of women Although Bangladesh and Nepal framed new policies their implementation has to be ensured All South Asian countries need to find a way to facilitate women’s migration without compromising protection

    16. Common standards South Asian countries can mutually agree to some common minimum standards and pursue those while negotiating migration of female workers Common standards of protection can be ensured for South Asian workers through learning from each other on issues like hot lines, shelter homes, legal assistance, signing of MOUs.

    17. Increasing participation in highly skilled market Most South Asian countries participate at low-end of care-giving services There is a huge demand for Nurses in the existing markets of South Asia as well as in Europe and North America Indian educational institutions produce nurses of global standard. Other countries can learn from India in uplifting their training standards

    18. Information Sharing A potential woman migrant has to go through government clearance, recruiting agencies, sub agents, employer money transfer institutions Women migrants also need to know the socio cultural environment of the country Bangladesh is trying to reduce such information gap by launching national level thematic media campaign. In migrant intense areas it is forming migrant protecting committees. This committee provides all kinds of information to migrants and their families. Other South Asian countries can take up this model of information campaign

    19. Major Recommendations

    Periodic sharing of experiences among the South Asian countries to learn from each other experiences The 1990 UN Convention and ILO conventions need to be ratified South Asian countries should unitedly lobby in different global forums for recognition of domestic work as wage labour

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