Migration and Risk of Health: Are Migrant Workers More Vulnerable to STI/HIV in India?

Sudipta Mondal, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Shiva S. Halli, University of Manitoba

Migration brings about a change in the lives and works of migrants in many ways. But does this change put them into higher health risk, at least, for those who are engaged in low-paid, semiskilled jobs in big cities in India? This paper seeks to understand this hypothesis by studying migrant laborers. Based on primary data collected from 200 jewellery workers in Mumbai through a series of quantitative and qualitative tools, this study aims at examining the location, organization, types of social networks, living arrangements and working conditions of migrant workers and its influence on the substance abuse and risky sexual behaviour with a view to answering the question that how far their susceptibility to risk behaviours towards STI/HIV can be attributed to 'migration' alone? The study notes that it is not migration, per se, rather the conditions attuned with the process of migration may make one vulnerable to the threat of STI/HIV.