Migration has been an integral part of human history, with people moving from one place to another in search of better opportunities, improved living conditions, or simply to escape unfavourable circumstances. This movement can occur at various scales, from international migration between countries to internal migration within a nation. One of the most unique cases of multiple-migration has been identified as India. Internal migration is validated as the most common type of migration prevalent in India. Internal migration is the movement of people within a country, and it can be driven by a complex interplay of push and pull factors. It has been observed that this trend comes with its own unique and distinct challenges both for the place of origin and the destination.
The internal migration in India can be categorized into three types and four streams. The first one being the intra-district migration. Its four streams include; (a) rural to urban, (b) urban to rural, (c) rural to rural and (d) urban to urban. This is followed by inter-district migration, and inter-state migration having identical streams. On the driving front, internal migration is driven by both push and pull factors. Push factors are the circumstances that compel people to leave their place of origin, while pull factors are the attractions that draw them to new destinations.
The common push factors in India have been identified as poverty, lack of basic facilities in the place of origin, unemployment, overpopulation, and natural disasters. On the other hand, the validated pull factors include better job opportunities, higher wages, improved healthcare facilities, quality education, cultural exposure and diversity. Given the diversity in India the dominant push and pull factors vary from region to region and community to community.
The internal migration comes with a number of challenges and outcomes. Internal migration has both positive and negative impacts on the lives of migrants and the regions they move to. Some of the positive impacts of internal migration in India have bene validated as; reduced unemployment as migrants find (or wish to eventually find) better job opportunities, improved quality of life for migrants and their families, enhanced social integration and cultural exchange, economic growth already in place in the regions that attract skilled workers, better educational opportunities for children and the vision and perceptible promise of an overall good-life
On the other hand, the negative impacts have received far more attention than the positive ones as they have turned out to be greater in number. Some commonly identifiable negative impacts of internal migration in India have been identified as; the loss of labour force in rural areas that hampers the local growth and developmental process, increased competition for jobs, housing, and services in urban areas leading to rent-seeking, challenges for rural migrants adapting to urban environments, uneven population distribution within the country, growth of slum areas in cities, leading to hygiene, crime, and pollution issues. Each passing day novel evidences come to surface concerning the negative impacts of internal migration from across the country.
India has experienced a significant increase in internal migration over the past few decades. According to the data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the overall migration rate in India is 28.9%. The rural-urban migration rate is 26.5% for rural areas and 34.9% for urban areas. Female migration is also substantial, with 48% in rural areas and 47.8% in urban areas. These double-digit numbers are taken as alarm knells by the analysts and policy makers. The major challenges come in the form of developmental divides that it is expected to create with an unsustainable population pressure on the urban areas.
One noteworthy example of internal migration within India is the influx of migrant laborers into the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir from other northern Indian states in particular and the whole country in general. The region has attracted workers from states like Bihar, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh due to various pull factors, including higher wages and more favourable working conditions compared to their states of origin and the other potential destinations of migration. This trend has seen a substantial growth in the past decade.
The situation however exists in a loop. In the first place there are no policies in place and practice to monitor the inflow of the migrant in Jammu and Kashmir. Whoever wishes moves in and starts to work. At the same time there exists a data-void. The government has no idea about the number of migrants living and working within the region. In the absence of these two major pre-requisites to public information and action the outcomes can’t be judged nor guessed. There is no empirically validated information available on whether the internal-migration into Jammu and Kashmir is contributing positively or negatively towards the growth and development of the region.
All the challenges and negative impacts discussed above equally apply to the context of Jammu and Kashmir and eventually require an empirical validation to draw the informed conclusions and ultimately arrive at the policy recommendations. Like any other Indian state, the region of Jammu and Kashmir also needs to make its contribution to the sustainable growth and development process at the regional level. However, to make the economic system sustainable it is essential that the locals of the region are employed gainfully.
A cheaper outsourcing of the jobs and tasks like it is happening in Jammu and Kashmir may seem reasonable and profit centric in the short-run but it is a long-run leakage from the domestic economy. For the Jammu and Kashmir economy which is already marred by the leakage problem of the face of limited local industrialization and a commodity dependence on the rest of the country, these further leakages may destroy the economy structurally. As such, the immediate need of the hour is to gauge the inflow of the migrants in the region followed by a cost-benefit analysis and the eventual framing and application of the relevant policies to fit the local economic context.
(The authors are affiliated with the Department of Economics, Islamic University of Science and Technology & can be reached at dhaarmehak@gmail.com )