RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN INDIA: DETERMINANTS AND FACTORS

The recent migration data from 64th round NSSO (2007-08) and census 2011 shows rapid increase in internal migration in India. The migration rate (proportion of migrants in the population) i n the urban areas (35 percent) was far higher than the migration rate in the rural areas (26 percent). Among the migrants in the rural areas, nearly 91 percent have migrated from the rural areas and 8 percent from the urban areas: where as among the migrants in the urban areas, 59 percent migrated from the rural areas and 40 percent from urban areas. Hence rural- urban migration plays a very significant role, so far as migration stream is concerned. The estimated results of the regression model on the basis of cross section analysis of 30 states and UTs suggests that in determining rural-urban migration the gravity variables such as percentage of rural population and rural literacy rate are highly significant, whereas the variables such as rural poverty ratio, MNREGA employment generation in person days and rural urban wage difference remained insignificant in explaining the variation in rural- urban migration from the list of sample states taken. But there exists some social factors apart from such economic factors which also play an important role in explaining the nature and stream of rural- urban migration such as similar language which operating mutually both at origin and destination places, distance between the places, the mindset and aspirations of migrants etc.