Abstract Book of the 4th World Conference on Gender Equality
Year: 2026
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Reassessing Legitimacy: How Indian Women Navigate Emigration Restrictions
Homaira Rahnoma
ABSTRACT:
In India, the Emigration Act of 1983 governs out-migration based on education, gender, age, and destination country. For 18 designated countries—including all Gulf states—individuals who have not completed education beyond the 10th grade are required to obtain “Emigration Clearance” from the Protector of Emigrants (PoE). Further, women under the age of 30 with education up to the 10th grade are barred from migrating to these countries altogether, while those with higher educational qualifications face no such restrictions. More recently, the government of India has imposed emigration restrictions on nurses seeking employment in these regions.
These restrictive policies are legitimized through paternalistic narratives that claim to protect “vulnerable” unskilled women. One result of these restrictions, however, is that a significant number of women continue to migrate through informal, and often risky, channels—relying on an invisible infrastructure that has emerged to circumvent these restrictions. While the state presents the restrictions as benevolent and in the interest of migrant well-being, little is known about how the targeted women themselves perceive and respond to such policies.
This research addresses that gap by asking: Do the affected women consider these policies legitimate? Legitimacy, here, is determined by whether individuals accept and comply with a policy—or view it as unjust and circumvent it.
By exploring how women interpret, experience, and strategically navigate emigration restrictions, this study contributes to broader debates on gendered migration governance, migrant agency, and the contested nature of policy legitimacy.
Keywords: Women’s Agency, Public Policy, Policy Legitimacy, Gendered Migration Governance