Friday, June 13, 2008

Blowing my cover.

Three email warnings from Jyotika and some pointed invitations to join the CCS blog have finally prodded me into action. I'm Naomi, i'm a certified lurker, its fun to read what everyone's getting upto in their respective parts of the country:).

I'm working on the impact of the NREGS on rural-urban migration. Its kind of a duh hypothesis, that in a region where the NREGS is implemented properly, migration will decrease. I'm assuming migration isn't good, because men get separated from their families-studies show most rural-urban migrants are men- and they migrate because of the lack of opportunities in their villages, and also they often dont have enough money to send back as remittances, so the theory that the remittances could help the village develop wouldn't really hold. If the NREGS provides a steady source of income for them, then they will have a strong economic incentive to remain in their villages. I'm linking migration with the spread of AIDS so am hypothesising that by decreasing rural-urban migration, the spread of AIDS-migrants are a high risk group- can be slowed down. The reason why i want to do this is to get actual empirical proof, that in some places where the act is implemented well, its doing a lot of good. I really believe that this act is one of the more worthwhile efforts to target poverty..Anyway am pretty excited because the field work will start from monday, and i'm crossing my fingers hoping i'll get up to date migration data.

Back to lurking:)
Naomi

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