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Womens Mobility and Migration

Muslim Women Migrants in Jamia Nagar, Delhi
Meenakshi Thapan, Anshu Singh, Nidhitha Sreekumar

Muslim women have remained invisible in the larger

discourse on migration. This paper shows how Muslim
women who have migrated to Jamia Nagar in Delhi are
leading a more fulfilling life in their new locality, as is
evident from the fact that they claim to have migrated
for social security, well-being, better opportunities and
higher education. Many of them are fleeing from
small-town prejudices and overbearing families.
However, it is also true that while Muslim women,
belonging to different socio-economic backgrounds
seek mobility, this is often achieved within the rubric of
familial and community strategies of both migration and
of living together as members of the same community
in a territorial space marked out as their own. This has
certain implications that both facilitate as well as impede
their need for employment, safety and autonomy. Legal
and policy frameworks must pay more attention to
women migrants to create a gender sensitive
migration policy.

We would like to acknowledge the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for

Comtemporary Studies, New Delhi, for funding the research on which
this paper is based and for hosting the conference on Internal Migration
in Contemporary India (22-23 February 2013) at which an earlier
version of this essay was presented. We are grateful to Saraswati Raju
and other participants for their feedback that has helped in the revision
of this paper.
Meenakshi Thapan (citizencivic.09@gmail.com) teaches sociology at the
Delhi School of Economics, Anshu Singh (anshusunrays@gmail.com)
and Nidhitha Sreekumar (nidhitha.s@gmail.com) are doctoral students
at the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics.

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ne aspect of mobility is migration, both internal and

international, that results in the movement of women
from one place to another, from one way of life to
another, from one experience of being a woman in a particular
sociocultural setting to another experience. It would not be an
overstatement to argue that migration has been an aspect
shaping womens lives in different ways for over a hundred
years. In fact, Glick-Schiller and Salazar argue that, Across
the millennia, migration or seasonal movements of people
have been a significant aspect of the human experience of
space and time (Glick-Schiller and Salazar 2013: 185). It has
also been suggested that people and their cultural practices
are not confined to a fixed territory but are parts of multiple
spatial networks and temporal linkages (ibid: 186). People are
therefore not territorially fixed or sedentary beings; they
move, for seasonal work, for education, for better employment
opportunities, and for a host of accompanying reasons.
Tumbe argues that India has been witness to a culture of
migration for over a century in some parts, that cover
roughly 20% or 200 million people (Tumbe 2012: 87). This
long history of migration tells us that women have been
accustomed to the outmigration of men when they have had
to take care of the family and its holdings over long periods
of time while the men are away. In more recent times, women
have been the pioneers in outmigration in search of better
livelihood options and upward mobility. This is in addition to
their migration through marriage to different cities or towns
in search of upward mobility and improved life opportunities
for themselves and their families. Forced migration, as a consequence of conflict, war or violence, has been one avenue
for migration, exile and refugee-hood for both men and
women in the Indian subcontinent. It has been particularly
poignant in the case of women as they have been the victims
of such migration first when the partition of India took place
in 1947 and then, each time, there has been conflict or war,
or violence triggered by communal forces in different parts
of the country.1

Statistics

Migration and gender is a deeply complex area of knowledge

owing to the conjunction and, which brings together the
concepts of migration and gender, but at the same time maintains them as distinct categories within the broader discourse
(Palmary et al 2010: 1). So far studies on migration have either
viewed the phenomenon as a response to economic pressures
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or as a negotiation between two cultures that of the

migrant and the host (Chopra 2004: 44). In itself, migration
is no doubt a physical and social transaction but it is also
an instrument of cultural diffusion and social integration
(Bannerjee and Raju 2009: 115). It is only when we move
away from an approach that views migration from a male
dominated perspective, purely in economic terms, that we
can hope to uncover other factors that both affect and are an
outcome of womens migration. We need to consider womens migration as being not merely compatible with male migration (i e, a consequence of marriage and therefore, movement) but also as an independent feature, albeit dependent
on several different factors. As researchers, our method in
collecting and examining migration related data plays a role
in the ways in which we draw our conclusions about male
and female migration.
One of the most salient findings of the 64th and the most
recent round (2007-08) of the National Sample Survey Office
(NSSO) is that the magnitude of male migration rate was far
lower than female migration rate, in both rural and urban areas. In rural areas nearly 48% of the females were migrants
while the male migration rate was only 5%, and in the urban
areas, the male migration rate was nearly 26% compared to
female migration rate of 46%.2 Such high figures for female
outmigration would apparently signify migration as a consequence of marriage. However, Agnihotri et al (2012: 24)
point out, basing their conclusions on a simultaneous consideration of census data, that the NSSO data does not indicate
female outmigration as a consequence of marriage but that
larger proportions of women are migrating for marriage.
Their analysis provides an exhaustive critique of existing data
bases and the tendency to conflate or confuse different sets of
issues primarily because of a failure to recognise women as
workers and independent actors in their own rights. In the
authors words,
We believe that it is the mono-causal approach (i e, the attribution of
a single reason for migration) followed by the macro surveys that has
been a major factor in camouflaging at least some economic or labour
based decisions in womens migration under other apparently noneconomic social reasons. For example, some implicit or actual labour
migration by women may appear in the data as marriage migration or
as other forms of associational movement by women simply because
both may coincide, but the social reason is presumed to be all important (ibid: 18).

In a similar vein, Bannerjee and Raju (2009: 116) assert

that usual practice considers those women as working who
report employment as the reason for migration; however,
women may have migrated for any reason but those who are
working at the time of migration must also be counted in the
universe of working migrant women. Moreover, as pointed
out by Shanthi (2006: 5) The woman may be working prior
to marriage and intend to get married with an urbanite to
enhance her potential for employment but it does not get
captured. This inherent bias in the data sets makes them
somewhat dubious basis for analysis but they are none the
less the ground on which an analyses of women and migration routinely take place.
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Perspectives
Migration in more recent times has received an impetus
owing to the forces of globalisation that have created both
demand and supply in different contexts and in multifarious
ways. It is also important to recognise that in most cases of
migration, the complexities and layering of the migrants
existence are rolled and flattened through the apparatus of
law. The basis of the legal system may partially lie on a
coloured perception of migrant women as victims who are
vulnerable, need to be protected, and lack agency of their
own. This coloured vision is especially true with reference to
the case of migrant Muslim women. Such a viewpoint compels policy framers to categorise migrant women as victims
and rarely sees their decision to immigrate as a choice to
escape, for example, an existing patriarchal society or seek
better livelihood opportunities for themselves.
It is also noteworthy that there occurs differential treatment
of women even in migrant families. Nair (2007a) brings to
light the markedly different treatment meted out by the family
to men and women who migrate for the upliftment of the
standard of living of their family. Like in many other matters,
a double standard prevails when it comes to the beliefs and
practices of treatment of migration of both genders by the
families. The migration of a male member is considered to
be a matter of pride and is valorised as a sacrifice on his
behalf, whereas a similar step taken by a female is considered
to be nothing more than carrying out of ones basic duty
(Nair 2007a: 3).
In view of these facts, some scholars have attempted to
provide a more nuanced understanding of what transpires
between and during migration. Sociologically, it is interesting to understand how contested meanings of more broadly
gendered constructs of home, nation, the political and the
domestic impact both embodied migrants and how symbolic
understandings of home and abroad (desh aur videsh in popular parlance) have been interrogated in the context of
migration.3 Over time, family traditions of migration affect
the values and behavioural systems of communities, forming
a culture of migration. Migrant women play an important
role in carrying their indigenous traits to the new settlement.
It is here that the sociological frame helps in comprehending
the importance of community sentiment, the role of the we
feeling and a sense of belonging, and the different practices
that act as coping mechanisms for a migrant in the host society
(Bal 2003: 255).
Case of Muslim Women

This paper takes into consideration aspects of migration

among Muslim women as a heterogeneous category. At the
very outset, it is important to note that though there are issues
that concern all women, the case of Muslim women becomes
special because of their minority status. As Hasan and Menon
observe, The community has emerged as a formidable force,
which many Muslim women believe seeks to restrict their
rights (2005: 2). They argue that the status of Muslim women,
in particular, usually remains hidden under the cover of the
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Muslim minority issue. The common rights of freedom to

marry and divorce, given to Indian women by the law, do not
apply to the Muslim women as their rights are under the jurisdiction of the Muslim personal law. Hence it becomes important to analyse their experience as a special case. Siddiqi and
Zuberi (1993) and Kumar (2002) have also pointed out that
despite being one of the most marginalised sections of our
society, scholars, policymakers and government officials have
ignored the concerns of Muslim women. They have
discussed the suffering of Muslim women in the context of
them being socially and economically backward, a condition
worsened by the interference of Muslim personal law in all
matters of their family life.
Migration as a social act is also closely related to the individuals decision-making power and the freedom to be mobile.
Indian women, Hindu or Muslim, largely are dependent on
their husbands or on their family to take decisions regarding
their movement outside the home. Given the scenario it is
important to note that the agency of a womans mobility is
closely related to the perception and ideas of her family. While
going through the Muslim Womens Survey (MWS)-2000, we
find that although lives of the majority of women, Hindu or
Muslim, are controlled by their family, mainly the men,
Muslim women are more subjugated and controlled (Hasan
and Menon 2004). Scholars have argued that there is a very
close relation between Islam and the subjugation of women.
Engineer (2013) and other scholars note that it is the social
atmosphere that determines the subjugation of women in
Islam, not the religion itself, because Islam provides equal
rights to men and women. However, Muslim women in India
and many south Asian countries do not seem to enjoy these
rights. Gill and Thiara (2009) have noted that women in
south Asian societies are often vulnerable to various forms
of violence which is not justified only by arguing that they are
part of religion or culture. Women, according to them, in
south Asian societies face multiple and intersecting form
of violence (ibid) and can be seen at the receiving end of
various violent crimes within the family and outside it.
Their case is more peculiar because, unlike Hindu women,
Muslim women cannot directly go to court for redressal of
their grievances. They are governed by Muslim personal
law that limits and curtails their position as free citizens of a
democratic nation.
Hasan and Menon (2004) have argued that women, despite
their educational achievements, are not the primary decisionmakers; especially in the spheres that are not directly related
to the household. However, younger women are showing
more willingness and interest in taking decisions. Within the
context of migration decision-making is quite an important
factor. Hasan and Menon (2004) have noted that 86% of
women in India, Hindu and Muslim, need permission from
their fathers or husbands to engage in most of the activities
that require them to go out of home, even if it means to the
nearby market, or the doctor. It clearly reflects the importance of the family in the lives of women. Mobility to work
and to get education is also largely dependent on the family,
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and so is the case with marriage. However, with new players

of education and occupation in the market, the demands and
the expectations from women as a large part of the labour
force, are expected to change.
Based on a case study, this paper will deal with some of the
issues pertaining to migration by Muslim women, their choices,
their aspirations and problems. Apart from general labour
migration, the case of Muslim women also provides us the
opportunity to study migration stemming from violence in the
domestic and public sphere, which presents a specific case
within this group. We note how Muslim women, given the
Muslim personal law guiding them through married life, deal
with unwanted, violent or second marriages. Along with this,
migration due to violence on the community, like the Mumbai
riots (1992), or Bhagalpur riots (1989), is specific to the Muslim
population in India.
Violence is one of the major reasons for migration around
the globe. Forbes and Tirman (2009) have pointed out that the
majority of this population is comprised of women and children who face enormous violence during the processes of
migration and relocation in contexts of conflict. Behera (2006)
notes that the large population of women that migrates due to
reasons of conflict is the least observed and analysed section
of south Asian societies. She has pointed out that conflict situations have to inform themselves of the gender issues which
have been largely ignored. Since Independence and the Partition, Muslims have faced violence in different parts of India.
We may note that the discourses around communal violence or
violence against Muslims have largely been oblivious to gendered violence (Hasan and Menon 2005). Kumar (2002) has
pointed out that Muslim women are not viewed as gendered
subjects of violence; their identity is overshadowed by their
communal identity. Our study seeks to examine the lives of
these women as gendered subjects: their struggles, journey,
quest to find a safe territory and efforts to recreate a fresh life
at a new place.
The argument in this paper is developed by linking mobility
and migration to the idea of agency on part of the migrant
woman as well as enunciates the difficulties, problems and
dilemmas of being a migrant woman in a metropolis. Apart
from secondary sources, data collected through fieldwork, at
Jamia Nagar, Delhi has been included to substantiate this
argument. The fieldwork, being preliminary in nature, takes
only a very small sample of Muslim women and providing
vignettes of their experience, in their own words, is designed
to take into account the reasons for migration that also results
in the experience of being part of the process of ghettoisation
of this particular community. There is an effort to examine
the processes through which women belonging to this community have sought to incorporate their individual aspirations independently as well as within larger familial goals.4
As the sample is of a limited size, no broad generalisations
are being offered and it is hoped that this initial exercise
will lead to an interest in further micro-level and qualitative
research around migrant women, particularly from marginalised communities, so that policy perspectives may be better
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informed from a subaltern standpoint that is not necessarily

present in large data sets.
A Special Type of Ghetto

Jamia Nagar has always been a Muslim-dominated area; however the influx of the population became higher during the
times of communal conflict like the Partition in 1947 or the violence against the Muslim community in Gujarat in 2002. Jamia
Nagar is home to many Muslim families and single men and
women who have migrated from all over India for various reasons that include the search for opportunities for employment,
education and finding a better life. This area is considered a
Muslim ghetto by many sociologists of urban India.5 An important point to note here is that Jamia Nagar is a special type of
ghetto. Though culturally dominated and spatially designed
to suit the needs of the Muslim population, it is not a very
poor city space, as ghettos are usually described in the popular literature. In this manner, it does not account for only
low income groups as its inhabitants; it is in fact home to
all classes of Muslims who have moved for reasons of social
security, which according to them, can only be found in a
Muslim-dominated area. The study has taken this factor into
account and women from a variety of social classes were
interviewed to understand the idea of ghettoisation due to
migration in this area.
Migration, Freedom and Social Mobility

We found that women account for almost half of the migrated

population in the area. They have migrated from various parts
of the country to Jamia Nagar. Interestingly, their reasons for
migration are closely related to the migration of the men of
their family, be it divorce, domestic violence or the will of the
male members of the family to move away from a disputed
area. The women interviewed, belonging to the age group of
21 to 60 years, are residents of Batla House and Abul Fazl
localities of the Jamia Nagar area of Delhi. In the context of
this fieldwork, a migrant woman has been defined as a woman
who has moved from any other state than Delhi or a place
within Delhi to Jamia Nagar area due to any reason and wishes
to stay there for a considerable period of time.
As observed by scholars, it is important to note that Islam
has predefined the role of women in society and the family.6 As
one 35 year old woman (working as a domestic help) said, I
went to a local madarasa. Maulwiji used to train us in reciting
Quran and we were told about the prescribed role of women in
society and the household. Women are meant to take care of
the home. They are responsible for the household. In the interviews, women have resonated the perspective that family
plays an important role in their lives; so much so that the decision of moving from one place to another, i e, migration, is
largely dependent on the family. This respondent added, I
came here at the age of 16, just after my marriage, my husband
used to work here in the university (Jamia Millia Islamia). He
lived in the same place as I am living now. Another respondent, who is an engineer by profession, said, I was married to
my husband through a channel of relatives. It was an arranged
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marriage, with the complete involvement of both families. I

agreed to get married as the groom was working in Delhi and I
thought moving out to Delhi will be fun.
Women migrating for better education and employment
options agree that Delhi has more opportunities for higher
education and good jobs. Education in Delhi appears to act as
a tool for empowerment for them. It not only helps to convince
the family in favour of migration of women but also becomes
handy in making women financially and socially independent.
This is similar to the observations made by Virk (2004) with
respect to women construction workers in Amritsar city, where
economic problems like famines and scarcities, indebtedness
and lack of sufficient employment opportunities in their native
places may push women out of their villages.
It is important to note here that the Muslim dominant
regions in India like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are underdeveloped and migrant women in Delhi experience a change
of culture that is closely related to the city culture or
metropolitan culture. The interviewees have explained
how they have experienced freedom after coming to Delhi.
This refers to the freedom to move around, to take financial
decisions, and to dress in other ways, to mention a few. In this
context, Nair (2007b) discuses the migration of women nurses
from Kerala to Delhi and highlights various personal goals
such as the desire to travel and see the world, learn new languages and, most importantly, to earn their living and
become self-reliant (ibid: 140). This indicates their strong
sense of seeking independence and freedom from familial and
other regional constraints. In our study, a 21 year old student
respondent, who migrated to Delhi for education and has now
decided to settle here after marriage points out that
It was fun coming to a new place. I have always heard about Delhi, the
buildings, the fun. Delhi lived up to its expectations. My brother was
busy in his work, and I had lots of friends who used to take me to
various places here. We just had to be careful about the timings of
returning, as it is not safe at night, but otherwise it was all fun. The best
part is that my friends live near my house, so whenever I wish I can meet
them to make plans. Travelling alone is fun too. My finances are handled by my parents and my brothers, and interestingly after my brother started earning I have to answer less about my expenditure. Also, it
is the first time I interacted with boys, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Independence here is also linked to interaction with young

men which is otherwise prohibited. However, it is migration to
Delhi after marriage that is viewed as a very empowering
experience by all the interviewed women. All married women
have noted that moving to Delhi after marriage was an important reason that determined their choice of their present husbands. This view can be substantiated by the relation between
marriage and migration in the case of women, as Palriwala
and Uberoi (2008) have observed. In the context of womens
marriage migration, they argue that migration within or as
a result of marriage, may often be the most efficient and socially
acceptable means available to disadvantaged women to
achieve a measure of social and economic mobility (Palriwala
and Uberoi 2008: 23). While marriage for many women may
act as a push towards migration, it may not, at the same time,
be an enabling experience or the main reason for migration.
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Migration is often also a refuge from the experience of domestic and other forms of violence.
Migration to Delhi also involves freedom from violence in
the domestic sphere and from communal violence, for example, in Bhagalpur, Bihar.7 Women who were suffering domestic
violence or were abandoned by their husbands had moved to
Delhi to obtain education and jobs, overcoming the dependence
on their family or the families of their husbands. This is in contrast to the popular belief that Muslim women find it difficult
to move out of marriage, a point also made by Hasan and
Menon (2004). For instance, a 23 year old woman who shifted
to Delhi, with her two children, to attain education and a job
after being left by her husband, told us,
Those were sad times, my sasu ma (mother-in-law) suggested that I
should continue my education, and get settled somewhere. She was
suffering from guilt because of her son. My father decided to send me
here to my mothers brother and his family. My father accompanied
me and my kids by train. Mamu Jaan (mothers brother) told him that
it will be good if I could be educated and support myself. The idea
clicked with me and my father. I am living here for the past four to five
years now. I completed my graduation and B Ed from Jamia a year ago.
Now I am looking for a job.

We find therefore that for this respondent, migration has

been a very empowering experience and has resulted in
greater mobility for her in terms of educational and livelihood
options. The significant role of the family in supporting her
and helping her attain her goals is a factor that must be taken
into account as well. Respondents have also mentioned that if
they had continued to live in their native place, they would
have had to face atrocities and dependence. Migrating to a
metropolitan city gives them a sense of distance from the
social, cultural and religious obligations which were not supportive of their independent lifestyle, and which is alien to
their lives in the small towns and rural areas of India. Many
women said that though the decision to move out from the
native place was taken by the family or a male member of the
household, migration has helped them to progress in life. They
are beginning to make independent decisions about their food,
clothes, household needs, daily chores and overall movement
outside the home in general. Most of the respondents have asserted their will to stay in Delhi and work for personal betterment. The students who have moved for education, argue that
moving out has helped them have a say in choosing their life
partner and the kind of life they wish to lead after marriage.
Ghettoisation of Community Spaces

While moving to Delhi, all our respondents decided or were

forced to live in Jamia Nagar and nearby places. This area is
overwhelmingly dominated by the Muslim population which,
for Muslim women, makes it a comfortable place to live in.
They can easily practise their religion and tend to feel safe
about the communal forces. Once they interact with new societies, migrant communities construct their own social worlds
(Bal 2003). Migrant women in particular play an important
role in carrying their indigenous traits to the new settlement.
Nair (2007a) for example, discusses the manner in which
networking helps maintain linkages between the place left
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behind and the new one. This also helps migrant women acquire a place to live in, which is otherwise very difficult in
Delhi. In our study, we have noted that women migrate to Jamia Nagar through their links with family members and others from their villages already living there.
Migrant women who shifted to Delhi after the Bhagalpur
riots noted that the family decided to move to Patna and then
to Abul Fazl (Jamia Nagar) as it was a Muslim-dominated area
which would keep them safe in times of communal riots in the
future. A 26 year old IT professional asserts that shifting to a
Muslim-dominated region was the main priority after the
retirement of her father. This is a Muslim-dominated place.
My parents thought it will be good to live in an area with other
Muslim people, instead of living amongst other religions. This
emphasis on finding refuge and safety by residing amongst the
larger minority population brings out the poignancy of the situation and at the same time results in the ghettoisation of the
community and the urban space.8 Family and community honour rests upon the security of women which is assured by
enclosing them in a Muslim dominated area where they can
easily move in and out without coming into contact with men
of other religions. Most of the women interviewed also
affirmed that they feel more secure in Jamia Nagar than any
other area. However, it may also be argued that due to their
already existing connection inside the community and the
area, and dependence on the family, they are unwilling to
explore other places of residence.
Restricting women to one particular, culturally-dominated
place is not only specific to women of the Muslim community;
as Bal puts it,
The migration of women has a special significance for community life.
In order to transform itself to an ethnic community, it is essential to
have regenerative abilities among them. The presence of wives and
families of the migrants provides this assurance of continuity. The
community life perpetuates the tradition, norms and values of the society of origin in a foreign land, thus providing them an identity in an
alien culture (Bal 2003: 255).

The tendency therefore in most ethnic enclaves is to build a

strong community with women and children at the core so as
to ensure the continuity of the community through the reproduction of cultural, religious and ritual norms, values and
practices that lie at the heart of community life.
Living in a Muslim-dominated area might be a choice for
most migrants. However, not everyone in the Muslim community has willingly migrated to Jamia Nagar. Often, the conditions around a communal situation force people to move and
this is also an outcome of the fear among Hindu landlords of
keeping Muslims as tenants. As a result, young Muslim families who wish to move out of the ghetto cannot do so. In the
words of a woman who works as an engineer in Delhi:
It was in 2008-09 when we were searching for a home. My husband
did not want to live in any Muslim ghetto, but we were having trouble
in finding a home anywhere else. He contacted many property dealers, and we could afford a home in any good locality but no deal could
be finalised. Property dealers told us that finding a home for a Muslim
couple is not easy because the Hindu landlords are uncomfortable
renting a home to Muslims, be it in any area. No amount of money
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could have convinced the landlords as the problem was that of
religion. So my husband suggested that we could find a home in New
Friends Colony and Jamia Nagar. I have no idea why he did not want
to come here in the first place. Since I have lived in a Muslim dominated area of Bhopal I dont find it to be a problem. However, the
property dealer could not find any house in Jamia Nagar or New
Friends Colony. This was the time when the Batla House encounter
took place in 2008 in Jamia Nagar, so even the Muslim landlords were
not convinced about taking on new tenants.9 Once again money was
not a problem. The major problem was that people were scared of
Muslims; it was just the wrong time to find a new house.

Old women and the women who are living alone do not
want to move out of the Muslim-dominated area; they believe
that they are safe here. This willingness to stay depends on the
family and its needs, i e, if there is a family. The same place
offers different material prospects to different members of the
Muslim population. Women coming from economically backward places find Jamia Nagar to be a developed area but the
women who have moved in here from more developed parts of
India consider it to be a backward area. For example, an upperclass woman moving in from Darbhanga says,
This place is dirtier than Aligarh but is more expensive as it is located
in Delhi. When I came here it was relatively more spacious but there is
a foul smell now and it is as if there has been an explosion in the population, and everyone wants to live here. I can however understand that
the reason is that this place is safe for the Muslims and Delhi has a lot
of work opportunities.

The engineer woman who migrated in to Jamia Nagar from

Chanakyapuri in New Delhi however elaborated,
By looking at the accommodation in Batla House and accommodation
in Chandni Chowk, I understood why my husband was not willing to
shift in here. The place is congested, and there is no space on the
streets. While living in Chanakyapuri I used to travel comfortably after 8.00 pm; here, I am afraid, and my husband comes to pick me up
from Maharani Bagh bus stop. But on the other hand, it seems that the
place is livelier than Chankyapuri. You can easily spot people roaming
around, shopping and having fun even late at night. The student population is the life of the place, they are always around. But with unlit
streets and sometimes goons around, I dont feel safe in this part of
Jamia Nagar. Not to mention the bad state of construction here. The
Yamuna river is close by, the place easily gets flooded with even a little
rain and the dampness never goes (pointing to the damp patches on
the wall). There is never enough light in the house, as the buildings
around are made in such a way that no fresh air and sunlight can enter
the home. No wall putty helps here. Though there is no problem of
electricity and water because the MLA makes sure that these necessities are available to all, sadly the same cannot be said of the sanitation
works. The meat shops do not dispose of their wastes properly, they
then rot and smell.

This migrant womans social class background and sensibilities bring out her aversion to the smells and difficulties of life
in damp, crowded spaces although she accepts the liveliness of
living in the midst of the community. Social class is an important factor in the lived experience of the Muslim woman in the
Jamia Nagar locality. A domestic help from Motihari says,
Now life is different, I have grown up and matured, I wish I
could go back home. But I cant, this place is addictive, the
freedom is addictive. Depending on social class backgrounds,
women acknowledge and appreciate different standards of living in the community. What appears to be a stifling, smelly
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environment for one upper-class woman is freedom and independence for another.
Migration to Delhi might have provided small town women
the freedom to choose and move, but Jamia Nagar does not
score as a liveable place as complaints about the lack of space
and cleanliness are unanimously voiced by everybody. Despite
these factors, there are women who have purchased property
on their own. Having a home of ones own adds to the willingness to stay on in the area. There is more likely a will for
returning to their own home (parents home in most of the
cases) if the woman does not own property. Acquiring property provides a sense of belongingness which for women has
been a motivation for continuing to stay in Jamia Nagar. The
dirty and noisy Jamia Nagar is liveable for the women who
own property here, irrespective of their class position.
A riot survivor of Bhagalpur who now owns a publishing
firm says,
They (her father-in-law and husband) had bought a property here.
This place was chosen due to the fact that this is a Muslim dominated
area. I had no idea before I came here, about the place. They decided that
this will be good for living and also for the education of the children.
We, the ladies of the house, came only after the construction of the
ground floor of this home. It was an unauthorised colony at that time
so land was cheap but constructing a house was difficult. The men
took turns to come here for the construction. We didnt have much
money to construct the whole house so we used to live in three bedrooms on the ground floor when we came here. Some more families
bought homes here after the riots. That gave us moral supportIt was
like starting a new life altogether. We had no household when we came
here and no jobs for people starting from scratch. My father-in-law
worked on his contacts from Bihar to re-establish his business here
For me this place is different and for my mother-in-law it was alien but
my children have grown up quite well here and they dont find any
problems in living here. We are comfortable now, though it is very
congested, at least it is safe. During the bad time of violence, the threat
was not from rioters but the property mafia. Though not well planned
and very congested, this place is secure and safe for all Muslims.

Another respondent, a 35 year old woman, mother of two,

says, I will think of returning to my parents house after my
children have completed their education. I cannot manage to
marry them off all by myself. It is a lot of work. Delhi generally and here Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) provides better opportunities for education and employment but for this woman,
even the financial independence does not make up for social
independence. An important decision like getting their daughters married requires the support of the extended family. In
the midst of all the lifestyle change post-migration, it is also
true that women face difficulties in living and travelling alone.
The respondents reported cases of the stalking of women by
acquaintances and other men which results in their not wanting to live alone. The need for security is closely related to the
need for having support from male kin or family, their mental
support or their physical presence, which has been voiced by
every respondent irrespective of age, class and occupation. A
young woman emphasises that it is because of the family
support she has received that she has journeyed alone
without fear.
In addition, the field data contributes to a nuanced understanding of migration through the concepts of culture of
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migration and the we feeling and sense of belonging

through living together in one place as one community. This
sense of solidarity arises through the ghetto formation among
the Muslim women in Jamia Nagar. Ghettos are meant to be
associated with the identity of we in contrast to the other
and are constructed not only to belong to a group but also to
stand against an other. Abdos work on ghettos in America
(2006) provides the argument that after the crisis of 9/11, the
Muslim population has faced discrimination. Abdo argues that
ghettos are then looked upon by Muslims as an alternative to
escape embarrassment and stigmatisation. Muslims choose to
live in the places with the majority of their population and
send their children to Muslim schools. At the same time, this
results in the stigmatisation of the community as a whole.
Almost all the work on ghettoisation shows that the process
of living together in one place is a reaction to fear, a strategy to
deal with the terror. As Bourdieu (1990) says, human subjects
strategise to play the social game, and it not only needs knowledge of the common rule of the game but also personal creativity. However, Bourdieu also argues that resistance to a type
of structure leads one to conform to other stereotyped structures of society. Muslims strategise to walk out of the given
structure of society and build their lives. But it all results in
them being cut off from the mainstream, hence reproducing
the hegemonic culture. Scholars argue that ghettoisation is
decided by a family and under the circumstances, the entire
family moves together from one place to another, but this
statement lacks a perspective on the gender dynamics in ghettoisation and migration. In the case of women migrants in
Jamia Nagar, we have attempted to examine ghettoisation
from a gendered perspective of migration and find autonomy
and freedom in womens lives in what appears to be a closed
off and constrained social space.
Seeking Change

Our fieldwork findings manoeuvre around the women as victims approach and show the manner in which Muslim women
who have migrated to Jamia Nagar are leading a more fulfilling life in their new locality, as is evident from the fact that
they claim to have migrated for social security, well-being,
better opportunities and higher education. In fact, the younger
women express their joy towards the new-found freedom in all
aspects of living. It is observed that many women are fleeing
from small-town prejudices, dangerous and overbearing
fathers and male relatives. Home can therefore be a suffocating place. This argument provides a contrast to the popularly
held conceptions regarding the predicament of migrants,
women in particular (Agustin 2005). The respondents have
also noted that if they had continued to live in their native
places it would have resulted in continued suffering and dependence. One such respondent is of the opinion that Jamia
Nagar has made them more independent:
I never thought of living alone in an unknown place. I was married
at the age of 15. I grew up with the thought of being with a person all
my life. Then things changed, now here I am living, studying, trying
to support myself. It is difficult for a small town girl like me; never in

102

my dreams would I have done so. I have never seen anybody do

this. The surroundings help you grow; here the environment is
quite supportive.

Similarly, a 21 year old student observes,

Patna is a reserved place, and while living there, I could not think of
roaming around this freely. I lived here for three years, my brothers
were very supportive and so were my parents. I completed my school
and went back to Patna. It was to be decided whether I should continue
my education or get married. My father was in favour of further education. So I came back to JMI.

Again, the role of the family in helping women gain independence can be seen clearly.
Another woman notes that migration also acts as a break
from the cultural baggage that they carry by living in a
small town:
It was the decision of the men in my life whether or not I have to
migrate. I was asked and I agreed because I know they are my wellwishers. For a woman leaving maika (mothers home) is natural but
leaving sasural (in-laws home) alive is a shame. Here people are not
concerned; else I could have died of shame.

Though most of the interviewed women migrated for

reasons stemming from decisions taken with the support of
the men in their family, the women have exercised their
agency in their decision for staying on. The factors that motivated migration range from men deciding to migrate for work,
marriage leading to migration and women being compelled
to migrate owing to atrocities by the male members of their
family. At the same time, women have migrated for higher
education and employment opportunities with family support.
Over time, family traditions of migration affect the values
and behavioural systems of communities, forming a culture
of migration. As the number of migrants increase, migration
becomes deeply ingrained into the repertoire of peoples
behaviour, and values associated with migration become part
of the communitys sense of identity. When migration was
dominated by males, young men perceived migration as a rite
of passage to adulthood. Later, as migration became more
feminised it also affected female values and behaviour, and
this forges a new culture of migration (Oishi 2005). Culture
as a way of life is a crucial construction, and the argument is
that by its very nature, migration challenges the idea of a unitary or single way of life (Iyer 2004: 45). There are many cultures and ways of life and there is no homogeneous understanding of the experience of belonging and identity as a consequence of migration.10
Womens migration within India takes place as a result of
several factors identified in the course of the argument. We
need to however take into account the fact that there is great
disparity in womens migration strategies ranging from employment, education, career moves and marriage, and this
does not in any way undermine their need to seek mobility.
Our focus on Muslim women migrants is an effort to open up
the space for understanding womens migration goals and
strategies within an overall framework of mobility, family and
territorial space. Muslim women, belonging to different socioeconomic backgrounds seek mobility but this is often achieved
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within the rubric of familial and community strategies of both

migration and of living together as members of the same community in a territorial space marked out as their own. This has
certain implications that both facilitate as well as impede their
need for employment, safety and autonomy.
Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

This paper has emphasised that Muslim women have remained

invisible in the larger discourse on migration. Their presence
has been acknowledged, but very few scholars are looking at
them as a distinct category. Engineer (2013) has shown that
the vulnerability of Indian Muslim women cannot be rooted
only in Islam. It is the social context coupled by the practice of
Islam that makes them a vulnerable group. They are denied
various rights, for instance property rights, which though are
part of Islam, are not acceptable in the Indian social milieu
dominated by patriarchy. The superimposition of communal
identity over the gendered identity often results in overlooking
the gender specific problems of women in the community. The
social and economic backwardness, the dominance of Muslim
personal law that is interpreted and implemented by the men
of the Muslim community, and the religious profiling in the
worldwide discourse of terrorism also add to the layers of
vulnerability of Muslim women.
Scholars believe that there is an urgent need to look at the
Muslim women as a separate category and produce findings
that can help them in various spheres of their life.11 This paper
has examined aspects of Muslim womens lives in a localised
context of their own, shaped by their anxieties and desires,
located in the family and community. It is observed that lives
of women are focused around their family and the decisions,
major or minor, are largely taken by the men of the family.
However it cannot be argued that they have no control over
their own lives. As shown by Bodman and Tohidi (1998),
Muslim women try to adjust and adapt to modern culture but
they do not take extreme measures to do so. Rather, they
adjust themselves in both private beliefs and public sphere opportunities without losing their ability to assert their decisions
and identities. This is similar to the observation by Hasan and
Menon, there is a hierarchy of the significance of decisions,
and women can-and do-exercise the option not to decide,
selectively. By this strategy they may simultaneously maintain
a public image of submissiveness while actually gradually
increasing their influence and participation in the home
(2004: 147). This is seen in the fact that Muslim women, with
the help of family, undertake migration. It is a step taken to
release themselves of the social submissiveness and indecisiveness that is associated with their gendered subjecthood. They
move to certain predetermined places, with the help of familial
or other contacts, largely through marriage, to get on with their
lives. Though they compromise on some quarters of their
migration, being in a new place amongst new people helps
their growth in terms of building self-confidence and in taking
day to day decisions about their lives. In this manner, migration
for women can be seen as a way to break away from the depressing situation at the native place. Most of our respondents
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reported to be free from the cultural norms and societal values

that held them back in their native places. These situations are
also complicated by the violence that is perpetrated upon women.
In cases of domestic violence, or moving on in a marriage,
our respondents show a great deal of free decision-making, but
this is also partly influenced by a consideration of familial perspectives. Muslim women are also subject to violence in public
spheres like communal riots and massacres. Forbes and Martin (2009), Behera (2006), and Gill and Thiara (2009), have
shown in their work that women and children are the most
vulnerable groups in any violent act. Due to the fact that we
have a long history of communal riots in India, the significance
of violence in changing the lives of women by allowing them
to migrate and setting up a whole new life cannot be ignored.
Family here also pays a crucial role in deciding the ways to
keep their women and the honour of the family, which is vested
in the women, to be safe and secure.
Through the findings of this paper, both primary and secondary, it emerges that vulnerability is constructed through
representations of female suffering and the consequences of
naming certain groups as vulnerable and as victims. Thus one
may infer that the labelling of certain groups as vulnerable is a
social construct, which is then perpetuated by law, administration and all other citizens follow suit. It is in this manner
that covertly gendered but explicitly gender free notions of
culture, domestic violence, and race work to exclude womens experience although, on the faade there may exist the
portrayal of a gender neutral dimension (Palmary et al 2010:
8). It is striking that in present times women should so overwhelmingly be seen as pushed, obligated, coerced, or forced
when they leave home to get ahead through work. But, so
entrenched is the idea of women as forming an essential part
of home, if not actually being it themselves, that they are routinely denied the agency (Agustin 2005: 224). As researchers,
we therefore need to be open to the idea of viewing women as
making choices even when they are encircled by the family
and the community. Their desire for education, employment,
and above all, freedom, must be recognised as increasingly
contributing factors for their mobility.
Legal and policy frameworks, both globally and in India,
have failed to pay sufficient and serious attention to women
migrants. This lacuna needs to be urgently addressed at both
the state and national levels if India seriously wants to develop
a gender sensitive policy orientation towards migrants. In
order to so, the need of the hour is to generate first class microlevel data, based on qualitative study among the most marginalised migrant communities, understanding the experience,
problems and dilemmas of migrant women and their families.
In addition to fieldwork at the ground level in slums, ghettos
and shanty towns of large metropolitan cities, it is important
to recognise innovative perspectives for research that take into
account the voices of women without losing the larger socioeconomic picture and political conditions, within which all
movement takes place.
In the process of this study, it was observed that scholars and
government organisations have largely ignored the questions
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related to Muslim women and migration. Keeping this in mind,

it is recommended that a database on this theme should be developed. Efforts must be made to undertake more research like
the MWS. There is also a severe dearth of data on migration due
to different forms of violence in India. If such information can
be generated, more studies can be undertaken. The database
could include, for instance, data pertaining to people from
minority communities who have left their homes after an act of
Notes
1 See, for example, Bhasin and Menon (1998),
Behera (2006), Bannerjee (2010).
2 Source: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?
relid =62559
3 See, for example, the work of Thapan (2005),
Arya and Roy (2006), Behera (2006).
4 Women from eight households were interviewed in Hindustani; all the interviews were
conducted in Jamia Nagar. The women have
migrated from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to
Delhi with the permission of their family, and
mostly along with them. All the women are
educated; contrary to popular belief, only one
of them has been educated in a madrasa. All
the others are educated in government or
private schools. Two of them are working in
MNCs (multinational corporations) and one
owns her own business. Two women who are
still pursuing their higher studies are keen to
work afterwards.
5 See, for example, Gayer (2011, especially
213 ff).
6 See Engineer (2013), Hasan and Menon (2005),
Kumar (2002), Siddiqi and Zuberi (993).
7 Bhagalpur riots took place in 1989; Bhagalpur
is a district Bihar, which faced violence in 1989.
Its causes are closely related to the Ayodhya
Janmabhumi debate. During the riots Muslims
were targeted in Bhagalpur, and many Muslim
men and women lost their lives in the riots.
Many mosques and Muslim property were
also destroyed.
8 It has been argued that the migration of the
Muslim population is closely related to their
ghettoisation in some pockets of the country
due to fear of communal violence or for the
reasons of social security, i e, feeling comfortable while practising their religion. See
Gayer and Jaffrelot (2011).
9 Officially known as Operation Batla House,
this took place in September 2008. Delhi police
claims that in this particular operation they
were trying to get hold of the terrorists responsible for the Delhi blasts of September 2008.
The claims are yet to be proved but the operation faced criticism for falsely targeting and
profiling young innocent Muslim boys for terrorist activities. See Jamia Teachers Solidarity
Association (2009).
10 Writers of poetry and fiction, Lahiri (1999,
2003) and Alexander (2003) for example,
provide rich and nuanced descriptions of
the fraught experience of belonging in alien
cultures.
11 See the works of Siddiqi and Zuberi (1993),
Kumar (2002), IIJ (2003).

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