Why So Many Indian Women Head to Gulf?

Bangalore: Do the opportunities available in Gulf countries drive women to migrate? Or is it the poverty within the nations that makes so many women head  to Gulf? Even when the hardships and exploitation of women workers are very high in Gulf nations, there has been a steady increase in the number of women workers especially from India who migrate to Gulf. 'Migration of Women Workers from South Asia to the Gulf', a recent report published by UN Women and the VV Giri National Labour Institute shows this trend of increasing women workers migration to Gulf from South Asia. 

The report says that women constitute 49.6 percent of the international migrants, which consists of 190 million migrant workers. India,Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan are the major South Asian women migrating countries while Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates remain as the major receiving countries of the Gulf region.

India is at the third position (48.7 percent) in the number of female migrant workers . Sri Lanka comes at second position (49.8) and Nepal is at the top of the list (68.2 percent). About 6.45 million international female migrants have originated from South Asia in 2010.

India and Pakistan alone account for 71 percent of women workers from South Asia. Saudi is the receiver of most number of Indian migrant workers in Gulf region. Most number of migrant workers of India are from the states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.