This thesis describes and analyzes the gendered experience of labour migration from a community of origin in rural Betul district, Madhya Pradesh. Central to this research is its inquiry into the ways in which processes of globalization and liberalization interact with local social phenomena to shape patterns and experiences of internal labour migration. Field research was conducted at a site in southern Betul district, between September and December 2004. Research methods included participant observation, focus group interviews, and semi-structured inter-personal interviews. The researcher employs a modified Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to analyze her findings, which permits a focus on the ways in which men and women migrants negotiate power relations enacted at local and regional levels. The study situates migrants at the periphery of the global economy, where "labour flexibility" is experienced as persistent workforce insecurity. However, it also incorporates a more actor-oriented, culturally sensitive analysis of globalization processes. This analysis suggests that, while experiences of migration are highly contingent, some migrants draw from vernacular discourses of modernity to conceptualize their extra-local work and the consumption it facilitates, and thereby present a tacit challenge to extant hierarchies of caste, class, and gender.
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