Migration and Related Stories in India

Migration and Related Stories in India

Data Regarding Internal Migration

  • According to World Population report 33% of Indian population lives in urban areas.
  • Economic survey 2017 says that interstate migration in India is close to 9 million annually.
  • According to 2011 census report total number of internal migrants in the country (accounting for inter- and intra-state movement) at a staggering 139 million.
  • Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are the biggest source states, followed closely by Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal;
  • Major destination states are Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

Factors of internal migration

  • Migration is driven by push-pull factors.
  • Distress has been a push factor from rural areas.
  • The desire for better employment in urban areas has been a pull factors in internal migration in India.
  • Data show that employment-seeking is the principal reason for migration in regions without conflict.

The problems of migration

  • At the destination, a migrant’s lack of skills is a major hindrance in entering the labour market.
  • The modern formal urban sector has often not been able to absorb the large number of rural workers entering the urban labour market.
  • This has led to the growth of the ‘urban informal’ economy, which is marked by high poverty and vulnerabilities.
  • The ‘urban informal’ economy is wrongly understood in countries such as India as a transient phenomenon.
  • It has, in fact, expanded over the years and accounts for the bulk of urban employment.
  • Most jobs in the urban informal sector pay poorly and involve self-employed workers who turn to petty production because of their inability to find wage labour.
  • Then there are various forms of discrimination which do not allow migrants to graduate to better-paying jobs.
  • Migrant workers earn only two-thirds of what is earned by non-migrant workers, according to 2014 data.
  • Further, they have to incur a large cost of migration which includes the ‘search cost’ and the hazard of being cheated.
  • Often these costs escalate as they are outside the state-provided health care and education system; this forces them to borrow from employers in order to meet these expenses.
  • Frequent borrowing forces them to sell assets towards repayment of their loans.
  • Employment opportunities, the levels of income earned, and the working conditions in destination areas are determined by the migrant household’s social location in his or her village.
  • The division of the labour market by occupation, geography or industry (labour market segmentation), even within the urban informal labour market, confines migrants to the lower end.
  • Often, such segmentation reinforces differences in social identity, and new forms of discrimination emerge in these sites.

The benefits of migration

  • Despite these issues, internal migration has resulted in the increased well being of households, especially for people with higher skills, social connections and assets.
  • Migrants belonging to lower castes and tribes have also brought in enough income to improve the economic condition of their households in rural areas and lift them out of poverty.
  • Data show that a circular migrant’s earnings account for a higher proportion of household income among the lower castes and tribes.
  • This has helped to improve the creditworthiness of the family members left behind — they can now obtain loans more easily.
  • Thus, there exists a need to scale-up interventions aimed at enhancing these benefits from circular or temporary migration.
  • Interventions targeting short-term migrants also need to recognise the fact that short-term migration to urban areas and its role in improving rural livelihoods is an ongoing part of a long-term economic strategy of the households.
  • Local interventions by NGOs and private entrepreneurs also need to consider cultural dimensions reinforced by caste hierarchies and social consequences while targeting migrants.

Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty

Image
Context Recently, US has decided to withdraw from the treaty due to several issues viz. Russia’s violation of the treaty, development and deployment of intermediate-range nuclear weapons by China etc. Russia has confirmed that the USA has decided to cancel the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed between Russian and the USA in 1987. The United States alleged that Russia is in violation of its INF Treaty obligations “not to possess, produce, or flight-test” a ground-launched cruise missile having a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers or “to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.” Russia denies that it is in violation of the agreement. On December 8, 2017, the Trump administration released a strategy to counter alleged Russian violations of the Treaty. About INF Treaty: Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty  (INF) is the cold war treaty signed between US and Russia in 1987. The INF treaty prohibits US and Russia from possessing, producing or t...
Read more

Geneva Convention 1949

Image
Why is it in news? Pakistan violated the Geneva Convention What is Geneva Conventions? The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties on the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers. It is also known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts. It was adopted in 1949. It includes four conventions, with three protocols added on since 1949. Their purpose is to provide minimum protections, standards of humane treatment, and fundamental guarantees of respect to individuals who become victims of armed conflicts. These Conventions and their Additional Protocols set out how soldiers and civilians should be treated during armed conflict. What are the four conventions? Convention I: This convention protects wounded soldiers and ensures humane treatment without discrimination based on race, colour, sex, religion or faith, birth or wealth, etc. The convention prohibits torture, assaults upon personal dignity, and execution without judgment. It also grants the ri...
Read more

Addressing Soil Loss

Image
Introduction India’s land area is about  2.5 per cent of the global land area , and it supports  more than 16 per cent  of the total human population along with  around 20 per cent of the global livestock population. Clearly, the pressures of constantly increasing production have in turn resulted in a  persistent decline in soil fertility , a major challenge that Indian agriculture is currently facing. With rising population, limited availability of agricultural land, small land holdings and declining soil fertility, India is under  serious threat of losing  its food surplus status in the near future. According to estimates, the  demand for food grain is expected to increase from 192 million tonnes in 2000 to 355 million tonnes in 2030. Need for ensuring soil fertility Los of soil fertility led to rise in cultivation cost. Sustainability of food production is directly affected by soil sterility. Ensuring livelihood sustainability o...
Read more