The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has released Report No. 533 titled  “Migration in India, 2007-08” based on the household survey on Employment and Unemployment & Migration Particulars conducted in its 64^th round. The field work of the nationwide survey was carried out during July 2007 to June 2008, covering a random sample of 5,72,254 persons, from 79,091 rural households and 46,487 urban households spread over 7921 villages and 4688 urban blocks in the country.

The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union except for Leh (Ladakh) and Kargil districts of  Jammu & Kashmir, (ii) interior villages of Nagaland situated beyond five kilometres of a bus route and (iii) villages in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which remain inaccessible throughout the year.

The major purposes of the survey were to study some broad features of household migration, migrants, short-term migration, out-migrants, remittances from out-migrants and use of such remittance by the recipient households. This report also provides the relevant information for all the States/U.Ts.

The present report has six chapters. The first two chapters are of introduction, and concepts and definitions respectively. The subsequent four chapters on summary of findings deal firstly the features of household migration, such as extent of household migration, reason for household migrations and location from which such households had migrated. Next, the characteristic of migrants have been presented, which cover the migration rate, reason for migration, migration stream, activity status before and after migration, etc. Thereafter, the aspects on short-term migrants have been presented covering the magnitude of short-term migration, destination, and industry of work. Finally, the out-migration has been dealt with out-migration rate, destination of the out-migrants, reason for out-migration, engagement in economic activities, remittances by the out-migrants and use of such remittances by the households.

 Collection of migration data was integrated with regular quinquennial survey on employment & unemployment in NSS 38^th round (January 1983 - December 1983), 43^rd round (July 1987 - June 1988) and NSS 55^th round (July, 1999-June, 2000). During NSS 49^th round (January – June 1993) survey, data on migration was collected through Schedule 1.2 which had a comprehensive coverage including, inter-alia, housing condition and migration in India.  Accordingly, the report also provides trends of key indicators from earlier rounds.

In this survey, usual place of residence (UPR) of a person was defined as a place (village/town) where the person had stayed continuously for a period of six months or more. A household member whose last usual place of residence (UPR) was different from the present place of enumeration was considered as a migrant member in a household. Persons who had stayed away from the village/town for a period of 1 month or more but less than 6 months during the last 365 days for employment or in search of employment are termed as short-term migrants. Those migrants who had reported that the present place of enumeration was UPR any time in the past were considered as return migrant.   Any former member of a household who left the household, any time in the past, for stay outside the village/ town was considered as out-migrant provided he/ she was alive on the date of survey.

Some of the important findings of the survey are given below:

  A. Household migration during last 365 days

 

·                     Proportion of households migrated to rural areas was very low, nearly 1 per cent. In urban areas, on the other hand, the migrated households constituted nearly 3 per cent of all urban households.

 

·                     Migration of households was largely confined within State: 78 percent of the migrant households in rural areas and 72 per cent of the migrant households in the urban areas had last usual place of residence within the State.

 

·                     Migration of households in both the rural and urban areas was dominated by the migration of households from rural areas. Nearly 57 per cent of urban migrant households migrated from rural areas whereas 29 per cent of rural migrant households migrated from urban areas.

 

·                     In both rural and urban areas, majority of the households migrated for employment related reasons. Nearly 55 per cent of the migrant households in rural areas and 67 per cent of the migrant households in the urban areas had migrated for employment related reasons.

 

B.  Migrants

 

·                     In India, nearly 29 per cent of the persons were migrants with significant rural-urban and male-female differentials.

 

·                     The migration rate (proportion of migrants in the population) in the urban areas (35 per cent) was far higher than the  migration rate in the rural areas (26 per cent).

 

·                     Magnitude of male migration rate was far lower than female migration rate, in both rural and urban areas. In rural areas nearly 48 per cent of the females were migrants while the male migration rate was only 5 per cent, and in the urban areas, the male migration rate was nearly 26 per cent compared to female migration rate of 46 per cent. 

 

·                     Migration rate in rural areas was lowest among the scheduled tribe (ST), nearly 24 per cent, and it was highest among those classified in the social group ‘others’, nearly 28 per cent.

 

·                     In urban areas, migration rate was lowest among other backward class (OBC) nearly 33 per cent, and it was highest among those classified in the social group ‘others’, nearly 38 per cent.

 

·                     Migration rate was found to be lowest for bottom MPCE decile class in both rural and urban areas and there is an increasing trend in rate of migration with the increase in level of living, with the migration rate attaining peak in top decile class. Migration rate, for rural male, for the bottom MPCE decile class was nearly 3 per cent and 17 per cent in the top decile class. For rural females, migration rate was 39 per cent in the bottom MPCE decile class  and 59 per cent in top decile class.

 

·                     For urban males the migration rate for the bottom MPCE decile class was 10 per cent which reached to 46 per cent in top decile class and for urban females the migration rate for the bottom  and top decile classes was 36 per cent and 56 per cent, respectively.

 

·                     For rural male, migration rate was lowest (nearly 4 per cent) among the ‘not literates’, and it was nearly 14 per cent among those with educational level ‘graduate and above’. For urban males also, it was lowest among the ‘not literates’ (17 per cent), and 38 per cent for those with educational level ‘graduate or above’ level.

 

·                     Among the migrants in the rural areas, nearly 91 per cent had migrated from the rural areas and 8 per cent had migrated from the urban areas, whereas among the migrants in the urban areas, nearly 59 per cent migrated from the rural areas and 40 per cent from urban areas.

 

·                     Nearly 60 per cent of urban male migrants and 59 per cent of urban female migrants had migrated from rural areas.

 

·                     The most prominent reason for female migration in both the rural and urban areas was marriage: for 91 per cent of rural female migrants and 61 per cent of the urban female migrants the reason was marriage.

 

·                     The reason for migration for male migrant, was dominated by employment related reasons, in both rural and urban areas. Nearly 29 per cent of rural male migrants and 56 per cent of urban male migrants had migrated due to employment related reasons.

 

·                     A higher percentage of the persons were found to be engaged in economic activities after migration: for males the percentage of workers increased from 51 per cent before migration to 63 per cent after migration in rural areas and from 46 per cent to 70 per cent in urban areas, while for females it increased from 20 per cent to 33 per cent in rural areas and from 8 per cent to 14 per cent in urban areas.

 

·                     For rural males, self-employment had emerged as main recourse to employment after migration. The share of self-employment in total migrants increased from 16 per cent before migration to 27 per cent after migration, while the shares of regular employees and casual labours remained almost stable, in both before and after migration.

 

·                     In case of urban males, the percentage of regular wage/salaried employees has shown a quantum jump (from 18 per cent before migration to 39 per cent after migration), besides an increase in the share of self-employment after migration (from 17 per cent to 22 per cent), and casual labour as a means of employment had reduced in importance after migration (from 11 per cent to 8 per cent).

 

·                     Rate of return migration (proportion of return migrants in the population) for males in rural areas was significantly higher than females: 24 per cent for males and 11 per cent for females.

 

·                     In the urban areas, the rate of return migration did not differ much for males and females: it was 12 per cent for males and 10 per cent for females.

 

C. Short-term Migrants

 

·                     The rate of short-term migration (proportion of short-term migrants in the population) was 1.7 per cent in the rural areas and almost negligible (much less than 1 per cent) in the urban areas. Moreover, in the rural areas, the rate was nearly 3 per cent for the males and less than 1 per cent for females.

 

·                     In rural areas, for both males and females short-term migrants, more than half were casual workers in their usual principal activity status.

 

·                     The share of the rural self-employed males in total short-term male migration was also significant, nearly 32 per cent, and rural females who were out of labour force in the usual principal activity status, shared nearly 24 per cent of the total short-term female migration.

 

D. Out- Migrants

 

·                     Out-migration rate (proportion of out-migration in the population) for males was nearly 9 per cent from rural areas and 5 per cent from urban areas. The rates for females were much higher compared to males in both the rural and urban areas. It was 17 per cent among rural females and 11 per cent among urban females.

 

·                     A relatively higher percentage of female out-migrants, from both the rural and urban areas, took up residence within the State: nearly 89 per cent for rural female out-migrants and 80 per cent for urban female out-migrants had residence within the State.

 

·                     Majority of the male from both the rural and urban areas had migrated out for employment related reasons which accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the out-migrants from the rural areas and 71 per cent of the out-migrants from the urban areas.

 

·                     For female out-migrants from both rural and urban areas, the reason for out-migration was predominantly for marriage, which accounted for nearly 84 per cent of female out-migrants from both the rural and urban areas.

 

·                     In case of rural male out-migrants, residing abroad, nearly 95 per cent were engaged in economic activities compared to 80 per cent of those residing in India and for male out-migrants from urban areas nearly 93 per cent of those residing abroad were engaged in economic activities compared to 73 per cent of those residing in India.

 

E. Out-migrant Remittances

 

·                     Among the male out-migrants from the rural areas and residing abroad, nearly 82 per cent had sent remittances during the last 365 days, while only 58 per cent of those residing in India had sent remittances.

 

·                     Among male out-migrants from the urban areas, nearly 69 per cent of those residing abroad had sent remittances compared to only 41 per cent of those residing in India.

 

·                     On an average, during the last 365 days, a male out-migrant from rural areas and residing abroad had sent 4 times the amount of remittances sent by an out-migrant residing in India: while on an average nearly Rs. 52,000 was remitted by those residing abroad, the amount was nearly Rs. 13,000 for those residing in India.

 

·                     Out-migrants from the urban areas had remitted higher amount, during the last 365 days, to their former households compared to those from rural areas. On an average a male out-migrant from the urban areas, and residing abroad, had remitted nearly Rs. 73,000 during the last 365 days, which was higher by nearly Rs. 21000 of the amount remitted by a male out-migrant from rural areas and residing abroad. On an average, during the last 365 days, male out-migrants from urban areas and residing in India had remitted on an average nearly Rs. 28,000.

 

·                     The amount of remittances from the female out-migrants from both the rural and urban areas was lower compared to their male counterparts, irrespective of whether the female out-migrants are residing in India or abroad.

 

·                     On an average a female out-migrant from the rural areas, irrespective of whether the present place of residence is in India or abroad, had sent nearly half of the amount which was sent by a male out-migrant from the rural areas.

 

·                     A female out-migrant from the urban areas and residing in India also remitted nearly half of the amount remitted by a male counterpart.

 

·                     The amount of remittance was nearly two-third from the female out-migrants from the urban areas and residing abroad compared to those remitted by the male out-migrants from the urban areas and residing abroad.

 

·                     Nearly 30 per cent of rural households had reported out-migration of its former members and nearly 19 per cent of urban households had reported out-migration.

 

·                      In the rural areas, the percentage of households reporting receipt of remittance did not vary much with the increase in MPCE. Nearly 36 per cent of the households in the bottom MPCE decile class had received remittances from its former members during the last 365 days and it was nearly 39 per cent for the households in the top MPCE decile class.

 

·                     In urban areas, the percentage of households which received remittances from its former members during the last 365 had increased significantly with the increase in MPCE: it was 19 per cent in the case of households in the bottom MPCE decile class which increased to nearly 31 per cent in the top MPCE decile class.

 

·                     Average annual household consumer expenditure was nearly Rs. 38,000 for all rural households compared to nearly Rs. 41,000 for rural households receiving remittances.

 

·                     Average annual household consumer expenditure nearly Rs. 65,000 for all urban households compared to nearly Rs. 80,000 for the urban households receiving remittances.

 

·                     Household consumer expenditure in both rural and urban areas was the prime use of the remittances. Nearly 95 per cent of the households in the rural areas and 93 per cent of the households in the urban areas had used remittances for household consumer expenditure purpose. 

 

·                     Nearly 10 per cent of the households in the rural areas had used remittances for ‘debt repayment’ and nearly 13 per cent of the households in the urban areas had used remittances for ‘saving/investment’.

The  migration rate (per 1000 persons) in each State/U.T. for rural and urban area is given at Annex-I & II respectively.   

This report is also available on the website (www.mospi.gov.in) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

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Annexure-I

 

Annexure-II

 

 

N.N.K/RK