A study on mental health of women migrant workers

Abstract: Background: Migration goes back to the beginning of our existence. One of the most talked about migration that take place in Nepal is Labor migration. Labor migration from Nepal to foreign lands has long history but this phenomenon has seen rapid acceleration in the last couple of decades. It's not only male population that has been rapidly stepping up in labour migration, the number of women seeking foreign employment has also been raising. Changing household structure in some countries and women's desire to work outside rather than just taking responsibility of household have provided opportunity for women from countries like Nepal to become independent, give financial support in the family and to make living. For migrant workers, it is not easy to adjust or adopt to the new country where they are hired because of difference in socio-cultural aspect, poor working and living condition. This has caused psychiatric morbidity along with other health issues. Methods: A perspective and descriptive study was undertaken in Emergency Shelter House of Pourakhi, Nepal among returnee migrant workers using semi-structured questionnaire, interview and Hamilton's Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). Consecutive sampling was done to select 151 participants. The findings was analyzed using SPSS 22. Results:Majority of the respondents (45.0%) were of age-group 25-35 years, 70.2% were Hindu, 44.4% were married and 78.8% represented from rural area. 41.7% were still Illiterate. During foreign employment, more than half received job as per qualification, 55.0% were satisfied with the job, 62.3% got salary on time and 41.1% said that they stayed in good working environment. One fourth of them face at least a type of abuse. HAM-D score showed that 71.5% were depressed which analyzed with various socio-demographic status and factors of foreign employment should very strong significance with residential area (p=0.004) Conclusions: Regular mental health assessment of returnee women migrant workers should be done that ultimately helps to plan the mental health programs and services accordingly. This will also help to minimize the psychiatric morbidity among them. Plans and policies regarding foreign employment should be strict enough to safeguard women in foreign nation. Keywords:Perspective and Descriptive study, Psychiatric morbidity, Depression, Returnee Women Migrant workers, Pourakhi Nepal