ARI Working Paper Series

Two divergent views confront each other from the perspective of the management of family affairs by left behind wives due to husbands’ out-migration. Some opine that left behind wives takes an active role in the management of family affairs whereas others believe that many are confronted for the first time with major responsibilities and are ill-prepared to handle those responsibilities on their own. Hence, an attempt has been made in this paper to do a comparative study of wives from rural India whose husbands have out-migrated (left behind wives) and who stay with their husbands (stay-put) especially focusing on decision making power with the help of NFHS-3 (2005-2006) data. Whether women are staying with their husband or they are left behind women are more socially, economically and spatially oriented as compared to demographically. Further, it has been found that decision making power is higher among left behind wives compared to wives who are staying with their husbands. However, this finding is subjected to certain contextual factors.