In the late 1970s, a marvellous movie hit the box office. Directed by Amjad Hossain, the film Golapi Ekhon Trene (Golapi now aboard a train) showed how a young girl from a very poor family and possibly hit badly by river erosion, was shifting to a town by train in search of food and shelter. Obviously, the harsh realities that the migrant girl faced on way to and in the town formed the core story of the cinema. As we will see later, Golapis of 2000s are now travelling by planes with the advent of more openness and globalisation which have been attributed to economic growth in the Middle East and Gulf countries attracting more female migrants from Bangladesh.
This kind of movement by people in search of a livelihood elsewhere is called migration which can be of three types: (a) within district (rural-rural), (b) another district town (rural-urban) and (c) outside the country (foreign or overseas). Types (a) and (b) together are called domestic or internal migration. Despite the destination, the root causes of migration seem to be the same. It is caused by push and pull factors. Push factors operate when the area of origin of the migrant suffers from overall stagnation in economic activities having adverse impacts on food availability, entitlements etc. In fact, people are pushed out of their homes to eke out a living elsewhere. Push factors dominate when, in the words of Sukanta Bhattacharya, Khudhar rajye prithibi godyomoy, Purnimar chande jeno jholsano ruti (When moon appears as a loaf of bread in a reign of hunger). Possibly Golapi leaving her home in the film mentioned earlier is an example of this kind. The pull factors, on the other hand, tend to attract migrants from their areas for higher wages or a better living. It is as if more is always better. Pull factors dominate when there are better communication, information and economic growth around.
Disaggregation of migrants by gender is possibly a very rare research in Bangladesh. An estimate from a recent survey in rural areas shows that females account for 10 per cent of the total migrants vying for wage labour outside (not for living with family). And about two-thirds of those female migrants apparently go to another district, 27 per cent to the same district and 8.0 per cent abroad - usually to Middle East and Gulf countries. In 2014, on average, they remitted Tk.33,213 to their households distributed as follows: Tk.1,32,000 from overseas, Tk.25, 000 from another district and Tk.1,300 from within district. Within-district remittance transfer takes place mostly through friend/relatives followed by mobile cash; half of the remittance from another district comes from mobile phones and 80 per cent of foreign remittance through bank accounts. Drawing upon the same survey on reasons for migration, three-fourths of female migrants were reported to have moved out due to push factors and one-fourths due to pull factors. This compares with, respectively, two-thirds and one-thirds in case of male migrants.
Some information on single migrants - unmarried or divorced - needs mentioning. Because they are the poorest of the poor - either divorced or never married. Eighty per cent of them belong to functionally landless households (owning up to 0.20 ha); about 70 per cent of them were forced to leave home for employment (push factors) as against 30 per cent for better income (pull factors). Two-thirds of them are destined for services (e.g. readymade garments) and one-fifths for housework. Most of them are aged below 25 with roughly 20 per cent aged below 18; about 60 per cent of them read up to primary and 20 per cent are secondary drop-outs.
On way back home after attending a conference in Copenhagen last April, this writer met a group of Bangladeshi women on their way home - mostly from Jordan but also from Qatar and Bahrain - in a lounge in the airport. One of them, say Golapi by name, was returning home for a vacation after serving as a maid in Jordan. Aged about 25, she read up to primary level and hails from a very poor landless household. She married at 15 but failing to meet dowry demand, was divorced. Divorced girls, especially in rural areas, face inhuman mental and physical torture both within and outside their own households. Our new Golapi was no exception to those sufferings. However, while she was almost desperate to commit suicide, a distant maternal uncle came to her rescue by arranging her a trip to Jordan. After serving a few years, she repaid the borrowed money (mostly from uncle) of about $3,000 that covered costs of her migration but on average, she sent home $1,000 every year. As could be observed, Golapi from Jordan carried three big bags, supposedly full of gifts for the dear ones checking those off and on. She possibly informed her relatives through mobile phone the time of her landing at Shahjalal Airport. She seems to have learnt some Arabic as was revealed by occasional communication with her 'comrades'.
The final call for boarding came and the team of migrants started proceeding towards the boarding bridge. Golapis had earlier travelled by train but are now happy to travel by plane.
The writer is a former
Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.
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