NEPAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGE AND RURAL MIGRATION
Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. pp. 189, Price T.C. Rs. 190.00 Poonam Thapa
Considering the facets of migration that are subtle and hard to measure, Sidney Goldstein (1976), a renowned migration expert, described migration as "a stepchild of demography." Not-withstanding, migration has remained a fascinating topic of research in Nepal for the last two decades. These studies are concerned, for the most part, with the large immigration into the Terai from the hills, which is the dominant stream of rural-to-rural migration in Nepal. The findings are simple: increasing population pressure and rural poverty in the hills have forced people to migrate either to the Terai or to India. Applying slightly more sophisticated statistical tools, Dr. Poonam Thapa has, in this book, also arrived at similar conclusions. She tries to explain how different economic and social conditions at the individual and household levels result in migration for some households, and not for others. She states that a better understanding of socio-economic relationships at these levels can predict hill-Terai migration processes in Nepal.
Of the book's eight chapters, the first three (61 pages) are devoted to clarifying her theoretical stance and the statistical packages used in the study. Chapter four is a historical analysis of agrarian relationships that shows the inequalities in land ownership among groups. Historically, according to Thapa, land ownership in Nepal is closely and systematically tied to the hierarchical caste framework: the higher the caste status of the family, the higher the land ownership of the family, and vice versa. This inequality of land ownership has generated migration potential within and between families, motivated Gurkha recruitment, and eventually led to land-reform programmes in Nepal. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 incorporate data gathered in the field, and an attempt to explain production processes and socio-economic change at the household level; distinguish the characteristics of movers from stayers, and the permanent, non-permanent, and potential migrants; and, finally, delineate the consequences of migration in the hills as well as in the Terai.