Mobility from one place to another is an important part of human existence. Migration in that sense is viewed as an integral part of overall economic and individualistic human development. Though social, cultural, political, personal and natural forces have a bearing on migration, viewing it as an economic phenomenon receives special attention. People may be motivated to change their place of residence because of lack of employment opportunities in the area where they are residing or in the hope of finding better opportunities elsewhere. In order to understand the dynamics of migration phenomena detailed nationwide surveys have been undertaken periodically to highlight the various facets of internal migration and the bearing it has on society.

The 64th round (July 2007-June 2008) of NSS was earmarked for survey on ‘Employment-Unemployment and Migration’, ‘Participation and Expenditure in Education’ and ‘Household Consumer Expenditure’. In this survey, information on various facets of employment and unemployment as well as on migration in India was collected through the employment-unemployment schedule. In NSS 64th round, information was collected on household migration, migration particulars of the household members, short-term migration, out-migrants,etc.
During 2007-08, rural-to-rural migration was the most dominant migration stream, accounting for nearly 62 per cent of the total internal migrants, followed by rural-to urban migration stream, which shared nearly 20 per cent of the total internal migrants. The share of urban-to-urban migration stream stood at 13 per cent, while urban-to-rural migration stream shared merely 6 per cent of total internal migrants. However, the pattern displayed by male migrants is distinct from that of female migrants. For male migrants, rural-to-urban migration stream was the most dominant one which shared nearly 39 per cent of total male internal migrants, while for female rural-to-rural migration stream shared nearly 70 per cent of the total internal female migrants.
Migration of households was largely confined within State: 78 percent of the migrant households in rural areas and 72 per cent of the migrant households in the urban areas had last usual place of residence within the State. The migration rate (proportion of migrants in the population) in the urban areas (35 per cent) was far higher than the migration rate in the rural areas (26 per cent).
Magnitude of male migration rate was far lower than female migration rate, in both rural and urban areas. In rural areas nearly 48 per cent of the females were migrants while the male migration rate was only 5 per cent, and in the urban areas, the male migration rate was nearly 26 per cent compared to female migration rate of 46 per cent.

It is seen that in both the rural and urban areas, migration rates have been gradually increasing during the period 1983 to 2007-08. The migration rates increased from 21 per cent in 1983 to 26 per cent in 2007- 08 in rural areas and from 32 per cent in 1983 to 35 per cent in 2007-08 in urban areas. However, this increase in migration rate is observed to be primarily due to the increase in migration rates for females.It may be noted that the movement of the households were largely confined within the State with 78 percent of the migrant households in rural areas and 72 per cent of the migrant households in the urban areas in India had residence within the State. Moreover, the migration of households in both the rural and urban areas was dominated by the migration of households from rural areas. Inter-state movements of the households were comparatively lower- nearly 21 per cent of the migrant households in the rural areas and 27 per cent of the migrant households in the urban areas had actually migrated from another State.

Across education levels, migration rate for males shows an increasing trend both in rural and urban areas with higher level of education attainment. It may be seen that for rural males, migration rate was lowest (nearly 4 per cent) among the ‘not literates’, nearly 22 per cent among those with level of education ‘diploma/certificate’ and it was nearly 14 per cent among those with educational level ‘graduate and above’. For urban males also, the pattern of migration rate was similar to the rural males: it was lowest for among the not literates (17 per cent), which increased to 43 per cent and 38 per cent for those with educational level ‘diploma/certificate’ and ‘graduate or above’ level, respectively. However, for females, migration rate tends to decrease with higher education across both rural and urban areas. Migration rate was lowest among those with level of education ‘literate and up to middle’: 37 per cent among rural females and 40 per cent among urban females in this level of education. The female migration rates for the ‘not literates’ in rural and urban areas were significantly higher: 56 per cent in the rural and 47 per cent in the urban areas.
It is observed that the male migration rates have shown a downward trend. Female migration rate has shown an increasing trend as compared to male migration. Although the 64th NSS round reasons out high female migration rate due to marriage, the reasoning is open to debate. If seen across educational levels, female migration is higher for those with low educational attainment as compared to males. Similarly, intra-state migration is more associated with women migrant workers. Thus gender-wise, women have become or have been compelled by economic reasons to be more mobile in search of opportunities.

• About
• Latest Posts

Aritra Chakrabarty

Anchor, SHRAM (Till Dec 31st, 2014)

As a social researcher, I believe in knowledge-based policy action. With a postgraduate degree in Development Studies, I've been associated with social issues in my professional space. As a part of SHRAMIC initiative, was involved with data creation, sourcing of resources that will become the knowledge bank of this project.

Latest posts by Aritra Chakrabarty (see all)

• Educated Migrant? - April 5, 2016
• The Art of Being Indispensable - June 26, 2015
• A card can make U-WIN - June 5, 2015