Internal Migration and Regional Disparities in India

Introduction

Internal migration is now recognized as an important factor in influencing social and

economic development, especially in developing countries. According to census 2001,

the total population of India is 1028 million consisting of 532 million males and 496

million females. India is geographically divided into 28 states and 7 Union Territories.

There is a tremendous variation in the aggregate population size across the state. It varies

from 0.54 million in Sikkim to 166.2 million in Uttar Pradesh. In 2001, 309 million

persons were migrants based on place of last residence, which constitute about 30% of

the total population of the country. This figure indicates an increase of around 37 percent

from census 1991 which recorded 226 million migrants.

Objectives

This paper is aimed to address mainly the following aspects of spatial mobility within

India during the last intercensal decade of 1991-2001.

1. Reasons for migration

2. In-migration, out-migration and net migration levels of all states.

3. State to state migration flows.

4. Some insights on the determinants of internal migration in India.

Data Source

This paper uses data from census 2001, which was released recently. Census in India

collects information on migration based on spatial and temporal aspects. In India, the

place of birth and place of last residence of a person provide information on the spatial

aspects of movement, while duration of residence provides data on the temporal aspects

of migration. The data covers spatial movement of persons within a state or between the

states based on crossing geographical / administrative boundaries. Census, however, does

not provide economic characteristics of the states. For the economic variables, the paper

uses data of various sources, including publications of the Reserve Bank of India, Central

Statistical Organization and Planning Commission, India

Results

Internal migration in India

In 2001, 309 million persons were migrants based on place of last residence, which

constitute about 30% of the total population of the country. This figure indicates an

increase of around 37 percent from census 1991 which recorded 226 million migrants.

Out of the total migrants 91 million are males and the rest 218 are females. Thus migrants

constitute around 30 percent of the total population, male and female migrants

constituting 18 percent and 45 percent of their population respectively. Of the total

migrants, 87 percent were migrants within the state of enumeration while 13 percent were

interstate migrants. Among the male migrants, 79 percent moved within the state of

enumeration while 21 percent moved between states. Among females, 90 percent were

intrastate migrants and 10 percent were interstate migrants.

In all censuses, rural to rural migration stream has been the most important. Females

constitute a significantly higher proportion of rural ward migrants mainly on account of

marriage.

As regards long distance (inter-state) movement in India, a clear sex differential is found

from census 2001. Among the male interstate migrants, rural to urban stream emerged as

the most prominent accounting for 47 percent. On the other hand, rural to rural has

remained the major pattern of female movement, with 36 percent of them migrating from

rural to rural areas.

Reasons for migration

98 million persons moved during the decade 1991-2001. Out of this, 33 million are males

and 65 million are females. Of the total intercensal migrants, 83 percent were intrastate

migrants and 17 percent were interstate migrants. However, among the males, 74 percent

migrated within the state of enumeration while 26 percent moved between states. A

corresponding percentage of females (13 percent) were recorded as interstate migrants.

This indicates that mobility of Indian population has significantly increased during the

1990s.

In census 2001, the reasons for migration have been classified into seven broad groups –

work/employment, business, education, marriage, moved at birth, moved with family and

others.

It is observed that employment among males and marriage among females are the main

reasons for migration. Associational reasons – movement on account of accompanying

parents or any other member of the family is elicited second most important reason

among both male and female intercensal migrants. Around 44 percent of the total

intercensal migrants have moved due to marriages. However, it is predominantly led by

females as 65 percent of females have migrated owing to their marriages compared to 2

percent among males. Among male migrants, employment has continued to be the main

reason for migration with nearly 40 percent of them accounted by it.

When interstate migration is taken into account, employment emerges as the main reason

for migration. Nearly 32 percent of all interstate migrants during the intercensal period

migrated for the reason of work or employment. This is closely followed by ‘moved with

household’ reason accounting for around 30 percent of the intercensal interstate migrants.

However, there is a clear difference between different streams of migration. While nearly

79 percent of females in intrastate rural to rural migrants during the intercensal period

reported marriage as the reason for migration, it is only 37 percent among females in the

case of urban to urban interstate migrants.

‘Moved with household’ as a reason also emerges as an important cause for both male

and female migration in all streams of migration during the intercensal period.

Inter – state migration flows 1991-2001

Although out-migration and in-migration are enough to measure the amount of net

migration, the direction to/from which the migrants moved can be used to explain the

structure and pattern of internal migration in a country. Flow matrices are not readily

available from the census publications. However a directional flow matrix (28 * 28)

between the states can be developed from census data.

From the largest three or four magnitudes of out-migration proportions of each state, it is

clear that majority of the migrants have moved to neighboring states only. However there

are exceptions for this. For Uttar Pradesh, which constitutes 41 percent of all our

migrants, migration to Maharashtra accounts for 32 percent even though Maharashtra is

not a border state. Likewise, out migrants from Orissa preferred Gujarat and Maharashtra

as the destination even when these states are not border states. Out-migration to these

states made up to 34 percent of total out-migrants from Orissa.

A close look at the pattern of each state’s out-migration is as follows. 56 percent of out-

migrants from Uttar Pradesh have gone to Maharashtra, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. In

the case of Bihar, nearly 50 percent out-migrants have moved to Jharkhand, West Bengal,

Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Out-migrants from these two states made up to 70

percent of total out-migrants. More than one-third of Tamil Nadu migrants moved to

Karnataka. The rest of the out-migrants have chosen mainly Kerala, Maharashtra and

Uttar Pradesh. More than three-fourth of out-migrants from Andhra Pradesh have moved

to the border states namely, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. For the out-

migrants from Rajasthan, destinations are Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya

Pradesh. Turning to Kerala, about 48 percent have moved to the neighboring states,

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. However, a slightly more than one-fourth of the out-migrants

from Kerala have moved to Maharashtra, which is not a bordering state.

Overall it is observed that majority of the out-migrants have moved to the bordering

states. Nevertheless, it is observed that migration to non bordering states has also been

significant. Here, one has to remember the enormous variations in the geographical sizes

of Indian states. With the distance covered by an inter-district migrant in state like

Rajasthan, a migrant in smaller states can reach another state, thus qualifying as interstate

migration.

From the flow matrix, Maharashtra emerges the most favored destination for migration.

Half of the entire interstate migrants have moved to Maharashtra. Gujarat and Haryana

are the other preferred destinations with nearly 30 percent of the migrants moving to

these states. The three states, thus, attracted 80 percent of all interstate migrants during

the intercensal period 1991-2001.

Inter-state migration: socio-economic determinants.

There is growing evidence in India to suggest that the country is moving fast in the

overall development. Structural transformation in the 1990s has propelled the growth of

the economy further. The percentage of people below poverty line has reduced and per

capita consumption has improved simultaneously. Although Indian economy is

predominantly agricultural, the proportion of work force engaged in agricultural activities

has fallen significantly. This reduction is perhaps, a sign of enhanced job opportunities in

other sectors.

With this scenario of an optimistic economic growth at the national level, an attempt is

made to relate the levels of migration of each state with some social and economic

indicators. The following variables have been considered for the preliminary analysis: -

proportion urban, per capita income, proportion of non agricultural workers, density,

economic dependency ratio, average earnings of rural labor, sex ratio, proportion age

15-59 and sex ratio of age15-49. Zero order correlation coefficients of these variables

with migration levels is expected to provide some insights on the mechanisms of push

pull factors of spatial mobility in India. The measurement errors in both the sets of

variables, socio economic variables as well as migration, cannot be summarily ruled out,

although efforts will be made to maximize the reliability.

Further, from the host of socio economic variables, some variables are considered for a

linear regression analysis with the levels of in-migration. A quick look at the flow matrix

shows that the poorest states in terms of state’s per capita income have moved to states

with high per capita income. The mean per capita income of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in

the decade 1991-2001 is Rs.3209 and Rs.6757 respectively. But the preferred destination

states, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana have high per capita income of Rs.16254;

Rs.13980 and Rs.15386 respectively. On the other hand, Punjab with a higher per capita

income of Rs.16765 has not attracted migrants in the decade. In overall, it is found that

states with less per capita income has migrated to states with higher per capita income,

higher wages and better opportunities.

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