How urban migration is redefining womanhood and kinship

One of the most talked about features of globalisation is movement. However, to study movement not merely as a feature but as a consequence of globalisation, it is better to use the term migration. While migration has been part and parcel of human civilisation for as long as one can remember, its reasons have varied across time and space. People migrated for food, livelihood, a more assuring sense of community, prosperity, or to escape persecution, among other reasons. 

When we think about migration in modern India, we usually start with urbanisation. Particularly after independence, it both pulled and pushed people out of villages and smaller towns to cities for better educational and economic opportunities. Men constituted a decisive majority of these migrants.

The rise of globalisation in India added new dimensions to both migration and urbanisation. The economy’s clear tilt towards the service sector caused a massive occupational shift from primary and secondary sectors to the tertiary sector. As the aspirational middle class expanded in big cities, it led to growing suburbanisation. In the beginning, it was predominantly men who left for the cities. But by the second wave of migration, a significant number of unmarried women began heading to big cities for education and employment. 

This piece explores crucial aspects of women’s migration in the context of globalisation in India alongside attending to a few critical consequences that merit closer attention. At the outset, it is important to clarify that this discussion focuses specifically on middle- and upper-class women from Tier II and III cities moving to metros. Given their caste and class location, globalisation played a significant role in expanding their awareness and facilitating aspirations that extended beyond their immediate surroundings. 

Breaking away from patriarchal restrictions

Towns and smaller cities in India are often marked by their patriarchal structures and limited personal and professional freedom for women. As these women learnt more about the career opportunities and life choices that awaited them in big cities, their resolve to break away from restrictive environments got much stronger. Moreover, in most cases, their families had also undergone a generational shift – from an India where a girl’s education was hardly valued to one where it became a pre-requisite in the matrimony market. Therefore, familial approval for their migration was no longer a major obstacle. 

Once these women end up in big cities, their journeys often unfold in promising ways. Many are able to reap the benefits of quality education, get into the service sector and scale commendable heights in their professional career. According to the NSSO Periodic Labour Force Survey (July 2023-June 2024), female labour force participation rate (15 years and above) in urban areas has increased to 28%, up from 23.8% in 2021-22. 

As more women enter the workforce, they begin to view womanhood through the lens of choice and autonomy – especially in decisions that have a bearing on their personal and professional lives. With this shift in their viewpoint comes a more assertive sense of femininity, persuading many to reconceptualise marriage as a mutual agreement or contract. With women’s agency taking centrestage in marriages, we see several new trends emerging in the institution of marriage – such as rising marital age, instances of inter-caste and inter-community marriages, growing preference for court marriages, and so forth.

Changing societal attitudes?

In her insightful work Matchmaking in Middle Class India: Beyond Arranged and Love Marriage (2020), Parul Bhandari argues that in the case of the new middle class, families may initiate the process of spouse selection but do not have complete control over it. She identifies delayed marriage as a characteristic of middle class identity and a credible marker of modernity. 

In a recent book chapter titled “Happily Single in Delhi: ‘Late’ Marriage, Self-love, and Leisure Practices”, Bhandari extensively reflects on what she calls “elongated singlehood” among young professionals in Delhi, whose expectations of companionship are increasingly shaped by the idea of ‘me time’. 

Mihirini Sirisena, on the other hand, draws attention to women’s strategic dissent and their techniques of persuasion in seeking familial approval for spousal choices. In cases where acceptance seems unlikely – such as when the partner belongs to a lower caste – women often persuade their parents to look at their choice as an exception to the norm, emphasising the partner’s shared middle class worldview.

Moreover, the new middle class women are also more informed about their sexual and reproductive rights. They often have small families with one or two children or none at all. Notably, one of the most positive findings of NFHS-5 (2019-21) – that India’s total fertility rate is finally at par with its replacement level (2.0 as compared to 2.2 in NFHS-4) – cannot be altogether dissociated from the globalisation-induced migration of middle and upper class women to big cities.

The recent Pew Research Center Study (2022), How Indians View Gender Roles in Families and Society, noted growing acceptance of women’s roles in family decision-making, leadership, gender-sensitisation, parity in rights, etc. It may be emphasised here again that migration has largely benefited middle- and upper-class women and positively influenced societal attitudes towards their status and roles. 

Some unintended consequences 

But it is also important to acknowledge some unintended consequences of this expansion in women’s freedom and choices. One such concern is the rate of crimes against women. In a 2024 Economic and Political Weekly special article, Rambooshan Tiwari and Shubham Narayan Dixit point out that, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2022 data, the crime rate in India declined while the crime rate against women increased.

The article also underlines that crimes against women are concentrated in metropolitan cities (population over one million). Citing 2021 data, it is argued that while these metropolitan cities have 13.78% of the country’s total population, they recorded 15.5% of incidents of crimes against women.

There has also been a worrying increase in moral policing in metros. Women’s choices – particularly regarding their appearance and clothing – are often questioned on moral grounds. Independent and assertive women have often been subjected to various forms of violence and harassment. Female tenants are expected to adhere to a defined code of conduct – not only to reassure their landlords of their suitability as tenant but also to stay in the good books of their neighbours. Hence, a woman’s freedom and independence – given the larger pathological narrative that connects women’s sexuality with the honour of their family – ought to be constricted via a moral framework.

Despite this social backlash, women have shown both necessary resilience and strategic acumen to navigate these new challenges. Their everyday strategies align with what acclaimed feminist Deniz Kandiyoti called “patriarchal bargain” – different forms of tactical engagement with patriarchy to ‘maximise security and optimise life options’ within the constraints of a given context. Notably, they have not inherited these strategies, but they have developed it through complex personal and political struggles. 

Evolving notion of womanhood and kinship

Moreover, it is important to note that given their class and caste locations – considering that the Indian middle class still is predominantly upper caste – the migration of these women to big cities led to a very different experience of urban metropolitan life. In their case, migration is largely driven by  ‘pull’ factors such as aspiration and opportunity, rather than poverty or deprivation. Consequently, their association with the city and its offerings are very different. 

In contrast, poor women – invariably lower caste or tribal – migrate to the cities because of dire compulsion. The agrarian crisis, which continues to push landless labourers and marginalised farmers to the brink, including instances of suicide, drives their movement. Once in the city, they usually end up at construction sites, which offer low and irregular wages. Some of them manage to find employment as domestic workers in middle- and upper-middle class households.

To conclude, it can be argued that the urban migration discussed here goes far beyond the usual trope of infrastructure development and growth. Considering the specificity of its core constituency – educated, working women from the middle and upper classes – it is bringing to the fore new frameworks for understanding womanhood, freedom, and kinship. As a society, the extent of willingness to accept the legitimacy of these frameworks will perhaps be a true measure of our collective progress and credibility.

Post Read Questions

How does urban migration among educated, working women challenge traditional notions of womanhood and kinship?

In what ways does this form of migration differ from conventional narratives centered on infrastructure and economic growth?

What new frameworks of freedom are being articulated through the lives of middle- and upper-class women who migrate to cities? What does the acceptance or resistance to these evolving frameworks reveal about our societal values and priorities?

What distinguishes the migration of middle- and upper-class women from Tier II and Tier III cities to metros from that of lower-income women?

Globalization has increased urban migration by skilled, young, unmarried women from various classes. How has this trend impacted upon their personal freedom and relationship with family?

(Irfanullah Farooqi is an Assistant Professor at IIM, Kozhikode.)

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