Does Migration Improve Women's Health and Knowledge of HIV/AIDS

Praween Kumar Agrawal, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Sutapa Maiti, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The present paper explores the effect of patterns of migration and duration of migration upon health and morbidity condition of women and knowledge and awareness of AIDS by analysing the data from India's National Family Health Survey, 1998-99. Women migrating towards rural area are more underweight than migrating towards urban area whereas reverse for obesity. However, women migrating from rural to rural area were more anaemic than rural to urban. Significant differences were found for morbidity conditions like Asthma, Tuberculosis, Jaundice, Malaria and some reproductive health problems according to streams of migration. Knowledge of AIDS also significantly differs according to the stream and duration of migration. Thus study finds out that stream of migration and duration of migration plays a key role in morbidity and health status of women. Key words: migration, pattern, duration, health, morbidity, underweight, obesity, anaemia, asthma, tuberculosis, jaundice, malaria, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS