A Study on Rural Migration in Bihar
Loading...
Files
Date
2021-03
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Extension Education, BAU, Sabour
Abstract
Migration (Human migration) refers to the movement of a person or group of persons, either across an international border, or within a state. Migration stands as a strong indicator of population change along with fertility and mortality. This study focuses on understanding the very nature of migration among the rural population in the Bihar state of India. Purnia district was selected purposively for this research study as studies earlier have shown a high incidence of migration over the rural expanse therein. The data were collected using random and purposive sampling techniques. A total of 120 rural migrants were selected randomly from Baisi and Dagarua blocks (60 each) of Purnia district of Bihar. This study aims at examining the socio-economic profile of the rural migrants, identifying the factors responsible for migration and enquiring about the socio-economic implication of migration on the families of the migrants. Statistical tools used to analyse the data collected were frequency, per cent, weighted mean, standard deviation and ranking. Majority of the rural migrants were from the age group of 20-30 years, were married and were illiterate. Most of them practiced ‘Muslim’ religion and belonged to the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC). The rural migrants mostly maintained a family of 5-7 members living in kutcha houses and majority of them were found to be landless.
Prior to migration, most of rural migrants used to earn in the range of ₹ 3766 - ₹ 7532 monthly whereas after migration, income increased and majority started earning monthly in the range of ₹ 7533 and above. Most of the migrants moved to Delhi for construction work up to a period of 6 months and returned back. The rural migrant workers were found to be doing casual and unskilled work for 8 hours daily in their workplaces at the host areas and were provided daily wages. Responsibility arising due to marriage emerged out to be the major social push factor while the economic and work environment push factors were low income and irregular employment opportunities respectively, which pushed the migrants away from their place of origin. On the other hand, major social, economic and work environment pull factors were fewer social barriers, better economic opportunities and regular work availability at the host areas. The socio-economic implications of migration on the families of the migrants were observed mainly on family income, followed by a positive impact on food quality, communication, children’s education, health of the family members, stress level of the family members, housing, clothing of the family members, social participation and knowledge or skills acquired by the family members. This study brings out the fact that there is a serious lack of employment in the rural areas which shoves the people out of their homes to move for work. Creation of employment opportunities in the rural areas by bending the path of rural people towards agricultural and allied sectors may kill their need to migrate outside their places of origin.