Trend in Labour Migration

The two main secondary sources of data on population mobility in India are the Census and the National Sample Survey (NSS). According to these sources, 27.4% who changed place of residence, 8.8% moved for employment reasons and 2.3% had business motives. Therefore, migration for employment reason is prime factor. In the country, trend of labour migragion is explained by following points.

1. The labour migration within the country is occurred from spoor states like Bihar, UP, Orrissa and Andhra to rich states like Pujab, Hariyana and Maharastra etc during cropping season. In not cropping season, labour migration is towards, metro-cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata etc working in construction and services sectors.

2. A large number of tribals, mainly from drought prone areas of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, migrate to work in construction, tile factory, brick kiln and crop cutting in Maharashtra 

3. Male migration is larger than female migration in absolute ratio but share of female migration is increased since 1990s. 

4. Since 2006 there is sharp decline in male migration due to employment generated through National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in village level. 

5. Migration in India is predominantly short distance, with around 60% of migrants changing their residence within the district of enumeration and over 20% within the state of enumeration while the rest move across the state boundaries.