Moving to other cities may seem commonto get into a job of one’s liking. However, it’s not all the same for men and women. Across rural and urban areas, most men leave their usual place of residence for employment reasons while women do it for marriage, according to the 78th edition of Multiple Indicator Survey (MIS) report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).
“Among males, employment was the main reason for migration, being 38.7 percent in rural areas and 56.1 percent in urban areas. For females, marriage was the main reason for migration, being 93.4 percent in rural areas and 71.5 percent in urban areas,” the report stated.
Apart from job-related and marriage, other reasons for migration included business, studies, social/political problems (riots, terrorism, political refugee, bad law and order, etc), displacement by development projects, scarcity of water, acquisition of own house/ flat, housing problems/insufficient land holding, healthcare, post retirement, natural disaster (drought, flood, tsunami), and migration of parent/earning members of the family.
The survey also shed light on people willing to move out of their current place of residence during the period and interestingly, while most males across rural and urban (more than 60 percent overall) were willing to migrate because of employment reasons, a majority of females on the other hand were willing to move in case of migration of parent/earning member of the family.
In the case of willingness to move for studies or marriage, a stark difference was seen when rural areas were compared to urban.
About 12 percent of women in rural regions were willing to migrate for studies as opposed to 5.1 percent in urban areas, and 13.4 percent rural women were ready to move for marriage as compared to only 2.8 percent in the urban sector.
The NSSO survey shows that water scarcity was still among top reasons for migration in India. It suggests that 53.6 percent employed persons left their residences in the 2020-21 period due to scarcity of water.
As many as 42.3 percent of those from the 'out of labour force' category moved homes because of
scarcity of water. Meanwhile, 1.7 percent unemployed people migrated because of the same reason, according to the survey.
It must be noted that the survey that was initially to be conducted in the January to December 2020 period continued till August 15, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
