MIGRATION: CAUSES AND TRENDS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN INDIA

“Migration is the barometer of changing socio-economic and political conditions at the national and international levels” (Razi, S., p. 3, 2014). There are various factors which has compelled people to migrate from one place to another. However, these factors may vary from country to country and from place to place. It may also vary from state to state within a country. In a developing country like India, migration mostly take place due to some factors like poverty, unemployment, natural calamities and underdevelopment at the place from where people migrate to some other places. In India internal mobility is still seem to be very critical to the livelihoods of many people, especially those living in rural parts of the country. People from rural areas migrate to nearby urban centres or cities mostly in search of better earning opportunities. It is expected that the percentage of urban population in India which was only 17 per cent of the total population in 1951 would jump to around 42.5 per cent of the total population by 2025 (Razi, S., 2014). The present paper, therefore, is an attempt to study the various causes and trends of migration with a special focus on rural-urban migration in India.