KOCHI: A 2022 World Bank working paper examining whether migration transfers gender norms to Kerala has triggered discussion after its findings on Saudi Arabia returnees began circulating widely. However, experts caution that the findings should not be read as evidence that Saudi returnees are responsible for violence against women in Kerala.
The paper, ‘Beyond Money: Does Migration Experience Transfer Gender Norms? Empirical Evidence from Kerala’, examined whether returnee migrants brought back different attitudes towards women and gender-based violence.
It found that returnees from Saudi Arabia displayed more conservative attitudes than non-migrants across several categories, including general gender attitudes, household decision-making, and gender-based violence. However, the data was collected in 2013.
The paper was published as a ‘World Bank Policy Research Working Paper’ in March 2022 and was based on the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2013 conducted by the Centre for Development Studies.
The KMS covered 14,575 households across all 14 districts and 63 taluks, with data collected on 63,230 household members. For analysis of gender attitudes, researchers examined responses from 8,614 non-migrants, 322 returning migrants from Gulf nations barring Saudi Arabia, and 256 returnees from Saudi Arabia.
The researchers used a 35-question module covering women’s employment, general gender attitudes, household decision-making, and gender-based violence. Around 43% of Saudi returnees surveyed believed a man has the right to beat his wife if she disobeys him, compared with 37% of returnees from other Gulf countries. Around 32% of Saudi returnees said a woman should tolerate aggressive behaviour by her husband to keep her family together.
On sexual violence, around 70% of Saudi returnees said women’s “immodest” dressing provokes men to behave badly towards them, compared with 61.4% of returnees from other Gulf countries. Nearly half of Saudi returnees also believed a woman who is raped usually did something careless to put herself in that situation.
Irudaya S Rajan said the findings need to be understood against Kerala’s broader social context. “The conservative attitude should be seen as a whole of the Kerala trait which has changed much in the 13 years post the study. There is nothing new in it or that just Saudi Arabian returnees engage in violence. They might be adding fuel to the fire as part of what their environment there is, but the fire was always there in Kerala,” Rajan said.
A writer focusing on Middle East affairs also questioned the relevance of applying the findings to present-day Kerala and Saudi Arabia.
“The premise itself is problematic if the study is being used to suggest that Saudi return migrants are responsible for conservative attitudes or violence against women in Kerala. At best, the data may indicate that some returnees could have brought back certain religiously conservative or fundamentalist attitudes from their environment abroad,” the expert noted.
Tharoor reacts
MP Shashi Tharoor described the findings as “disturbing reports” and said Kerala had long been known for a liberal and progressive practice of Islam, coexistence and communal harmony. However, economist Prasanto Kumar Roy pointed out that the paper was based on 2013 data and was published as a World Bank working paper in 2022. Tharoor later acknowledged the criticism as “a welcome corrective” and said: “We all want Keralam to remain Keralam.”
World Bank paper ’22
Around 43% of Saudi returnees surveyed believed a man has the right to beat his wife if she disobeys him, compared with 37% of return migrants from other Gulf countries
On sexual violence, around 70% of Saudi returnees said women’s “immodest” dressing provokes men to behave badly towards them
However, the data was collected in 2013, making the findings more than a decade old