Abstract
Rural-to-urban migration is one of the important dimensions of structural transformation, but the patterns of migration show wide variations across the country in India. This chapter on rural-to-urban migration in Uttarakhand based on a household survey across eighteen villages shows migration as a widespread phenomenon among rural households. Much of the migration (73%) is for long duration. A disturbing phenomenon is permanent migration—36% of households left the surveyed villages permanently during the past ten years and most of them were from upper caste households. Hardly anyone migrates from the state for manual work, and most of the migration is for regular salaried work, although much of it is low-paid petty jobs. The remittances are used mostly for consumption, including education and health needs, which could hardly create multiplier effect in the villages. The main reasons for migration are low productive agriculture and educated unemployment who are unwilling to work as manual wage labour. It depicts the hardships of village life in general and women in particular in the Hill Region of Uttarakhand in the wake of increasing out-migration. The chapter critically examines the policy paradigm of development and its failures to create remunerative employment opportunities in the Hill Region and resultant out-migration for creating present demographic vacuum in the region. It offers measures useful to policy and action to promote employment opportunities and quality of living in the Hill Region of Uttarakhand.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Atkinson, E. T. (1882). North Western Provinces Gazetteers, Vol. XII. (Reprinted in 1976). The Himalayan Gazetteer (Vols. I, II and III). Delhi: Cosmo Publications.
Awasthi, I. C. (2012). Livelihood Diversities in Mountain Economy: Constraints and Opportunities. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company Pvt. Ltd.
Bora, R. S. (1996). Himalayan Out-Migration. New Delhi: Sage Publication.
CBED. (2012). Annual Report 2011–12. Dehradun: Centre for Business and Entrepreneurial Development.
CSO. (2013). Annual Survey of Industries. New Delhi.
Deshangikar, P., & Farrington, J. (2009). Circular Migration and Multidimensional Livelihood Strategies in Rural India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Dhyani, R. P. (1994). An Approach to Economic Planning for the Rural Poor of Central Himalayas. New Delhi: Classical.
Dobhal, G. L. (1987). Development of the Hill Areas: A Case Study of Pauri Garhwal District. New Delhi: Concept.
Fei, J. C. H., & Ranis, G. (1964). Development of the Labor Surplus Economy: Theory and Practice. Homewood: Irwin Press.
GoI-NSSO. (2014). Indebtedness in India, 70th Round. New Delhi: National Sample Survey Organisation, Government of India.
GoUK. (2013). EC_Minutes_20.11.13. Uttarakhand State Rural Livelihood Mission, Dehradun. Retrieved from http://usrlm.uk.gov.in/files/EC_Minutes_20.11.13.pdf
GoUK. (2014). Annual Plan 2013–14. State Planning Commssion, Government of Utarakhand, New Delhi.
ICIMOD. (2010). Labor Migration and Remittances in Uttarakhand—Case Study Report. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu.
ICIMOD. (2013). The Value Chain Approach for Mountain Development: Case Studies from Uttarakhand, India (ICIMOD Working Paper 2013/6). Authors: Choudhary, Dyutiman; Ghosh, Idraneel; Chauhan, Sushrut; Bahti, Sanjay and Juyal, Manish, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu.
India Brand Equity Foundation. (2014). Uttarakhand August 2014. New Delhi.
Institute for Human Development (IHD). (2011, June). Poverty and Gender Analysis of Uttarakhand. A Study for the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Lewis, A. (1954, May). Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labor. Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, XXII, 139–191.
Mamgain, R. P. (2004). Employment, Migration and Livelihoods in the Hill Economy of Uttaranchal (Ph.D. Thesis). Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Mamgain, R. P., Awasthi, I. C., & Mehta, B. (2005). Employment Generation in Uttaranchal: Constraints and Opportunities, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi (mimeo).
Planning Commission. (2007). Press Note on Poverty Estimates, 2004–05, New Delhi.
Planning Commission. (2013a, July). Press Note on Poverty Estimates, 2011–12, New Delhi.
Planning Commission. (2013b). Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012–2017): Faster, More Inclusive and Sustaibale Growth (Vol. I). New Delhi: Sage.
Planning Commission. (2014). Report of the Expert Group to Review the Methodology for Measurement of Poverty (C. Rangarajan Committee Report), June, New Delhi.
Srivastava, R. (2011, December 6–7). Internal Migration in India: An Overview of Its Features, Trends and Policy Challenges. Paper Presented at UNESCO-UNICEF National Workshop on Internal Migration and Human Development in India, New Delhi.
Stark, O. (1991). The Migration of Labor. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.
Trivedi, A. (2012, January 21). Ghost Villages. Hindustan Times, Rudrapryag.
Umar. (2012, June 7). The Ghost Villages of Uttarakhand. Tehelka Magazine, 9(27).
UNESCO. (2013, June). Social Inclusion of Internal Migrants in India. New Delhi: United Nationas Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Walton, H. G. (1910). British Garhwal: A Gazetteer (Reprint 1994). New Delhi: Indus Publishing Company.
Acknowledgments
This chapter is largely based on a pilot study on “Outmigration in Uttarakhand”, sponsored by the S.R. Sankaran Chair (Rural Labor), National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), Hyderabad. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the NIRD&PR. The authors are grateful to Kunal Sen, T. S. Papola, Kailash Sarap, K.P. Kannan, Chandrasekhar, and other participants of the International Seminar on International Conference on Labor and Employment Issues in the Context of Emerging Rural-Urban Continuum: Dimensions, Processes and Policies, organized by the S.R. Sankaran Chair (Rural Studies), NIRD&PR, Hyderabad, March 12–14, 2015.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mamgain, R.P., Reddy, D.N. (2017). Out-migration from the Hill Region of Uttarakhand: Magnitude, Challenges, and Policy Options. In: Reddy, D., Sarap, K. (eds) Rural Labour Mobility in Times of Structural Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5628-4_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5628-4_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-5627-7
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-5628-4
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)