Migration is a form of spatial mobility of the population between one geographical unit and another involving a permanent change of residence (UN, 1958). Migration in India was recorded beginning with the first Census of India conducted in 1881, which was recorded on the basis of place of birth. Migration is a significant factor in redistributing people over time and space.
While there are several causes of migration in India, they can be broadly grouped into two categories: economic and social. The highest level of migration in India is of males because of employment purposes, females usually migrate as accompanists of males because of factors like marriage and family transfer, but increasingly single females are also moving out in search of jobs.
Table of Contents
The Economic Causes of Migration in India
The economic causes of migration include the following:
- Urbanization: Urbanization is the growth of rural land into urban areas as a result of population immigration to an existing urban area. Rates of urbanization affect rural-urban wage differences. An increase in the demand for labor in urban areas can increase urban wages and encourage migration. The push and pull factors of low salary and better job facilities respectively compel people to move towards cities.
- Employment: The main reason for migration is employment or business-related migration. People move from rural to urban areas in large numbers due to employment in industries, trade, transport, and services because rural areas fail to employ each individual living there. Even the cottage industries are not enough to provide the required employment.
- Push and pull factors: Push and pull are two principal factors that are responsible for migration. Push factors cause people to leave their place of origin. These include poverty, lack of work opportunities, poor economic conditions, lack of basic infrastructural facilities such as healthcare and education, natural calamities, exhaustion of natural resources, etc. are some examples.
Pull factors attract people from different places. Generally, rural migrants move to urban areas in search of better opportunities, availability of regular work, better working conditions, and comparatively higher wages. In India, people move from villages to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore for the given reasons.
The Social Causes of Migration in India
The social causes of migration include the following:
- Marriage: India’s long-upheld patriarchal system leads to the woman moving to her husband’s place after marriage. Therefore, most female migration is because of marriage. Even after marriage, shifting due to the husband’s job posting is another reason why most females are, in a way, forced to keep migrating every few years.
- Education: As rural areas fail to provide adequate education, many people tend to migrate to urban areas for higher education. Even after their education is complete, they prefer to settle down there to earn a livelihood that will guarantee them better returns, which is per their skillset.
- Lack of Security: Political disturbances and interethnic conflicts, which never really end, drive people away from their homes. A huge number of people have migrated out of Jammu and Kashmir because of the continuous conflict with Pakistan. From North Eastern India as well, there has been a lot of migration due to several interethnic conflicts. People also migrate on a short-term basis in search of better recreation opportunities, health care facilities, etc.
Consequences of Migration
Migration affects both the areas of origin of migration as well as the areas of destination of the migrant population. The various causes of migration give rise to several consequences of migration, such as the following:
- Economic: The economic consequence of migration includes a change in the resource population ratio. If people move from overpopulated areas to underpopulated ones, the resource-population ratio balances out. However, if the migration is from underpopulated areas to optimally populated areas, the effect is harmful to both sides. Brain drain is another major consequence that is not good for the home region. On the other hand, remittances from migrated areas, help enhance the economic condition of the origin state.
- Social: No place in the world is the same as the other. India itself is an extremely diverse country, and hence, migration from one region to the other leads to the intermixing of diverse cultures. This intermixing gives rise to the evolution of composite cultures. And when people interact with different cultures and their traditions, they get to experience a different perspective on how others view the world, broadening their mental horizons. But sometimes migration creates a social vacuum and a sense of dejection among individuals, and people fall into crimes and drug abuse (Khullar,2014).
- Environmental: Large-scale migration from rural to urban areas leads to overcrowding in urban areas and puts pressure on the already limited resources. As a result, slums start developing which lack basic infrastructural facilities such as sewage, electricity, drinking water, etc. Overcrowding is responsible for air, water, land, and noise pollution, as well as the management of solid wastes.
- Demographic: Demographic consequence talks about changing the characteristics of the population. The rate of growth of the population changes due to an inflow of a large number of individuals. The youth population depletes as the youth tends to move to metropolitan areas, which are more beneficial to them in terms of a better standard of living. Birth rates, therefore, decrease gradually, lowering the population growth rates as well.
Conclusion
While there are a variety of causes of migration in India, they can be broadly divided into two categories: social and economic. Social causes of migration include adverse effects of climate change or the violation of human rights in their home areas. Whereas economic causes of migration consist of push and pull factors, i.e. poor labor standards and better employment and educational opportunities, respectively. Migration has both positive and negative consequences, and since it is a continuous process, efforts should be made to maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative ones.
FAQs
What are the major causes of migration in India?
The push and pull factors are the major causes of migration in India. Push factors of fewer opportunities and pull factors of better living standards result in rural-urban migration in India.
What are the 7 push factors of migration?
The 7 push factors of migration include lack of jobs, absence of good educational institutions, poor medical care, poverty, famines, political conflicts, religious persecution, and natural disasters.
What is migration in India and its types?
Migration in India is primarily of two types: long-term migration, which results in the relocation of an individual or household, and short-term migration, which involves a back-and-forth movement between a source and its destination.
