PANJIM, JUNE 16
A national sample survey has found that the rate of female migration was far higher than male migration, in both rural and urban areas.
In rural areas nearly 48 per cent of the females were migrants while the male migration rate was only 5 per cent, and in the urban areas, the female migration rate was 46 per cent while male migration rate was only 26 per cent.
The most prominent reason for female migration in both the rural and urban areas was marriage: for 91 per cent of rural female migrants and 61 per cent of the urban female migrants the reason was marriage.
The reason for migration for male migrants, was dominated by employment related reasons, in both rural and urban areas. Nearly 29 per cent of rural male migrants and 56 per cent of urban male migrants had migrated due to employment related reasons.
The survey also has found that migration of households was largely confined within State and a majority of them had migrated for employment related reasons.
The survey titled “Migration in India, 2007-08” has found that 78 percent of the migrant households in rural areas and 72 per cent of the migrant households in the urban areas had last usual place of residence within the State.
The sample survey was conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and the field work carried out between July 2007 and June 2008, covering a random sample of 5,72,254 persons, from 79,091 rural households and 46,487 urban households spread over 7921 villages and 4688 urban blocks in the country.
Proportion of households migrated to rural areas was very low, nearly 1 per cent. In urban areas, on the other hand, the migrated households constituted nearly 3 per cent of all urban households.
Migration of households in both the rural and urban areas was dominated by the migration of households from rural areas. Nearly 57 per cent of urban migrant households migrated from rural areas while only 29 per cent of rural migrant households migrated from urban areas.
Another interesting fact found by the survey is that among the male out-migrants from the rural areas and residing abroad, nearly 82 per cent had sent remittances during the last 365 days (in 2007-2008), while only 58 per cent of those residing in India had sent remittances.
Also, among male out-migrants from the urban areas, nearly 69 per cent of those residing abroad had sent remittances compared to only 41 per cent of those residing in India.
On an average, during the last 365 days, a male out-migrant from rural areas and residing abroad had sent 4 times the amount of remittances sent by an out-migrant residing in India: while on an average nearly Rs 52,000 was remitted by those residing abroad, the amount was only Rs 13,000 for those residing in India.
