Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque
(From previous issue)
Any benevolent patron-client relationship to the advantage of working girls is a kind gesture that should be rather appreciated provided it encourages working girl’s education.
Impression of the research team drawn from focus group discussion (FGD) was that some heads of the household or caretakers or their children perceive attached importance to education for ‘determining the future of child domestics.’ They opine that side by side with educational facilities the child domestics should be provided with pecuniary reward to supplement their income including circumstantial helps. There are some instructive examples in which the employers as benefactors helped the permanent girl domestics to defray the cost of marriage. Financial support was extended to them even after marriage. In some cases emotional support went to the extent of helping their husbands to get a job in offices or factories.
The villagers from poverty prone rural areas migrate to town and metropolitan cities out of dire necessity. Distressingly loss of location is resulting from the deluge of natural devastation out of climate change and deteriorating law and order situation upset the vulnerable dismantling all their natural settings for survival.
The villagers especially in coastal areas are victims of grinding rural poverty resulting from climate change. This is definitely a new dimension of push factor. Only a field research will tell the stories of their migration to town. There is a variety of dimensions of push factor that operate as a phenomenon of rural-urban continuum. Trekking to cities through hazardous process they first take shelter in pavement.
A phenomenal growth of poor girl children in developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change is due to the fact that their families suffered the stress of dislocation with resultant dislocation. The displaced families find place somewhere in town facing enormous hazards.
Migration has now become a concern area of the problem of urbanization in developing countries. It is essentially a demographic phenomenon. To date, there has been little analysis of migration patterns resulting from climate change. We would like to understand the recent trends in migration to city. Specifically, the characteristics of the moving population that are affected by natural calamities like flood and storm should be analyzed.
Push factor connotes ‘any negative condition or circumstances that encourage people to change their situation, especially as regards migration’ (Travel Industry Dictionary, 1999-2007). Push factor is associated with the process of exploitation, deprivation and destitution. In other expression man-made crisis, natural calamities and several antecedents of feminization of poverty coalesce to create compelling circumstances for the poor to leave their native villages. In the countryside polymorphous violence, structural tension, environmental terrorism and climate change are some potent factors responsible for migration to major urban areas. They may be subsumed as a single compendium concept-‘push factor’.
A push factor is a feature or event that pushes a person away from or encourages a person to leave his or her current residence (especially the parental home), city, state or country (especially of origin); organization, or religion (especially one’s original religion).
?Push factors for leaving one’s current residence include:
Family conflict (such as divorce and domestic violence) or other family worries
Unfavorable conditions in the current residence
Parental oppression
Unfavorable use of parental controls
Opposing one’s parents’ wishes
Disagreement with parental teachings or the teachings of one’s parental religion
Unfavorable conditions or lack of services in the locality of the current residence ?Push factors for leaving a city, state, or country of origin include:
Lack of jobs
Poverty
Unreliable food services or famine
Environmental problems
Pollution
Drought
Natural disasters
Overcrowding or Overpopulation
Fear of loss of wealth
Difficulty finding courtship
High cost of living
Bullying
Religious or political oppression or persecution
Destructive, detrimental or otherwise undesirable legislature,
Repressive culture
Warfare or civil strife
Economics provide the main reason for leaving a country of origin. Environmental problems and natural disaster lead to loss of money, shelter, and employment.
A pull factor is a feature or event that attracts a person to move to another area.
Pull factors include:
More or better services in that area
More reliable food services (lower risk of famine)
Higher standards of living
Higher income
Peace (absence of civil strife or warfare)
Better behavior among the people (lower crime rates and higher moral standards)
More desirable climate (warmer)
Better chances of finding courtship
Immediate distance from family problems
Economic stability and less risk of loss of wealth
Cultural diversity
Religious or political tolerance (living in a more liberal or less repressive state or country)
More comfortable housing
We propose to study the vulnerability of GDW in the backdrop of the magnitude of the crisis resulting from rural urban migration. An analysis of the problem itself warrants a delve into push and pull factors. Policy analysis concerning the issue at hand aims to look at the problematic at some depth. Thing is that the problem of the exploitation of GDW by the employers and several middlemen is deeply rooted difficult to remove in near future. The question that may arise is that is complete elimination of girl child labour as young maid servants are possible or is it a far cry? However attempt to eliminate or better reduce exploitation by the employers would not be an ambitious project. We can hope against hope. GDW needs better deal at least. And if safety net for the poor expands under MDG and PRSP due to good governance the problem will vanish altogether.
We can thus safely argue that to posit a relationship between environmental factors and policy outcomes, the role of policy analysis is regarded as important. There is a considerable search for the actual impact of each factor as well as cumulative effects of all factors in environment taken together. Several empirical studies of development are much concerned about ecological settings the analysis of which serves as important inputs for re-conceptualization and reformulation. In this way development needs are duly assessed for policy intervention. The constituents of each environment factor are among the most important predicators of development analyzed in terms of diagnosis, perceived symptoms and interdependence.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor, Department of Public Administration, Chittagong University)
(Concluded)
