Abstract
This chapter illustrates how the notion of co-residence, headship and resource management of a household have been modified by the phenomenon of labour out-migration in Nepal. The concept of household is largely used in the studies of home economics, resource management, livelihood and family care. In general, a household is a unit formed by family members or a combination of family and non-family members, with roots in the institution of marriage. Traditionally, the household is considered a co-residential unit, with a household head, and taking care of the day-to-day resource management and primary needs of its members. However, the notions of family-based unit, co-residence and management of resources by a functional household head are challenged by various living arrangements, livelihood opportunities and changing modes of production that are caused by the phenomenon of labour out-migration in the recent times. Based on survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions carried out in a village in eastern Nepal, this chapter argues that households are not restricted to the conventional boundary of living-together. Like resident members, the non-resident members also have a great influence in household resource management and can even act as a household head at a distance, thus modifying the meaning of ‘household’. We perhaps need to understand it as ‘modified-extended-household’ where a household acts as an arena of resident and non-resident members who are engaged in continuous interaction and communication for the wellbeing of its members.
Post-doctoral Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada and International Development Studies, Canadian Mennonite University, Canada. With the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) his current research focuses on labour out-migration, small-scale agriculture and wellbeing of the people left behind in South Asia. He completed a PhD in Social Sciences at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, with a focus on sociocultural anthropology.
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Notes
- 1.
In this study, formal sector means the working environment that is regulated by the government and the relationship between employees and employers is based on a legal (usually written) contract. Informal sector, on the other hand, is the working environment that is based on mutual understanding between employers and employees and usually is out of the sight of government regulations. It depends on an individual’s situation where he/she works, but in general domestic help, housemaids and illegal workers end up working in the informal sector, while engineers, managers, administrators etc. work in regular and formal sector at destination.
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Gartaula, H.N. (2013). Modified extended households: co-residence, headship and household resource management in the context of labour out-migration in rural Nepal. In: Butijn, C., van Ophem, J., Casimir, G. (eds) The arena of everyday life. Mansholt Publication Series, vol 12. Wageningen Academic Publishers, Wageningen. https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-775-2_3
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