all over south asia the ideal of purdah seclusion of women which assigns a symbolic capital of honour and respectability to the control over womens realms of action has hampered women s mobility only in recent years have india eg kerala and nepal witnessed a feminization of international migration linked to a global demand for domestic workers reproducing the traditional gendered division of labour the government of nepal issued temporary bans on womens labour migration in and this last ban was eventually lifted in yet as compared to other countries in the region see table in nepal there are fewer age restrictions and in women officially accou nted for per cent ofthe total absentee population this figure certainly underestimates the magnitude of female migration as it does not account for crossborder migration to india and restrictive provisions on the mobility of women migrants often increase undocumented migration