Determinants of Agricultural Labour Migration to Urban Areas in Mahabubnagar District of Telangana State

ABSTRACT The study has identified the factors, responsible for rural-urban migration, based on 120 sample respondents each of migrants and non-migrants, spread over the district of Mahabubnagar district in Telangana state, by employing the largest model. The study has highlighted the importance of rural development programs like MGNREGA, that are being implemented by the government with a view to provide employment and income for the rural population, in the country. It has also shown that, for both migrant and non-migrant households, agriculture was the major source of income, and their consumption expenditure was more than the production expenditure. It has also been observed that, migration has a positive impact on income, expenditure and net savings of migrant sample households. The regression analysis has shown that, a one unit increase in the age of household-head increases the probability of migration of family members, by 0.81 per cent. The probability of migration of family member decreases by 0.003 percent, with one unit increase in before-migration income of a household. The odds ratio for family size has indicated that, with one unit increase in family-size, the probability of migration of family members' increases by 8.7 percent. There is a negative relationship between migration of family members and income from agriculture. As off-farm income of a household increases the probability of migration of its family member decreases. The odds ratio for off-farm income implies that, with one unit increase in off-farm income of a household, the probability of migration decreases by 0.018 percent.