Migrant Adolescent Girls in Urban Slums India: Aspirations, Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

Migrant adolescent girls in India’s fast-growing urban-slum population face multiple intersecting vulnerabilities, \nincluding gender, poverty and migrant-status. \nThe study aims to understand the opportunities and challenges for migrant adolescent girls in low-income urban \nslum settings. \nQualitative data were collected through interviews with girls aged 12-19 who migrated during the past two years \nand non-migrant adolescent girls for comparison to explore their experiences in fast-growing Indore. A groupinterview with slum women’s group members discussedways to address challenges. \nPush/pull factors linked with different employment/educational opportunities between rural and urban areas \nmotivated families of unmarried girls to migrate. Recently married girls joined city-based families or accompanied \nhusbands who were labor migrants. Neither married nor unmarried girls played decision-making roles in \nmigration. \nMarried migrant adolescent girls faced challenges in accessing education, employment, social opportunities and \nservices owing to restrictions on freedom of movement, weak social networks, and little awareness of \nopportunities and services. Childbearing migrant girls faced particular risks. Contact with their natal families being \nlimited, the quality of relationship with husbands and marital families was crucial for married girls’well-being. \nUnmarried girls attending schools were positive about the migration experience, perceiving the city to offer \ngreater educational opportunities. Through school, they accessed opportunities for new relationships and social \nactivities. Not all unmarried adolescent-girls wereable to access opportunities owing to family restrictions and \neconomic circumstances. These girls’ worlds remained small despite moving to a large city. \nWhere girls’ economic and/or family and social circumstances allowed, migration entailed a positive change that \nenhanced their opportunities. Specific challenges of this population segment need focus in policies and programs, \nprioritizing three particularly vulnerable groups: girls who are neither in education nor employment, pregnant \ngirls or new mothers, and those with difficult relationships in marital homes. Proactive outreach to raise awareness about opportunities and services and fostering social networks through front-line workers and slum women’s groups are recommended.

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