Rural Immersion Programme: Swadesh foundation project reverse migration
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MICA
Abstract
Immersive, non-participatory ethnography
This helped us in our quest to understand the larger environment in which these reverse migrants exist and also the larger socio-cultural context in which they lead their lives. Their attitudes, fears, beliefs, prejudices, community and familial bonds, perceptions about urban and rural lifestyles in a technologically converging world were interpreted and observed after spending time with them while they were busy in tasks surrounding their occupations. These reverse migrants have been exposed to city life and yet have not been able to negotiate with the urban socio-economic and psychological landscape due to reduced savings and substandard lifestyles. Yet they wish to reassert their independence and are driven by the urge to own a business and be financially self-sufficient. Since the overall sentiment in the villages regarding their decisions is skewed towards a general disapproval and acquiescence of their choice, it is important to observe them without letting any external mediating or moderating factors interfere with the authenticity of the information gleaned.
Trace Ethnography
The method is best for revealing the often invisible and underlying thought processes that underlie routinized activities taken up by the migrants – animal husbandry, farming, semi-skilled labour, etc. The method will help us in documenting accounts of activities, interactions and phenomena that take place in the lives of reverse migrants. Using this method, we can account for the loss in information and observational data which we cannot achieve due to the presence of a lot of external factors like context, limited exposure and cultural barriers, if any. Trace ethnography has its limitations, as it does not immediately help in grasping the larger sociocultural significance or history of the work being done for reverse migrants. Trace ethnography is anyway more suited to find aggregate meaning by looking at document trails. Documentation on reverse migrants has only recently been undertaken on a block level. Their occupations, change in lifestyles, attitudes, beliefs and their likelihood of going back to Mumbai are all captured. Trace ethnography was combined with other qualitative methods like immersive ethnography, interviews, focus group discussions and projection techniques. The major task cut out in front of us was to determine monetary exchanges the migrants did as a part of their business.
Description
Area: Mangaon, Mahad, Poladpur, District: Raigad, State: Maharashtra
Keywords
Rural development & problems, study by students