A comparative analysis of rural-urban migration in three states of India : Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala

This work is a comparative analysis of patterns of selectivity in rural to urban migration within three Indian states- Bihar, West Bengal and Kerala. The rationale for concentrating on these three provinces is to show how regional-level diversities in socio-cultural patterns and economic development, as well as in demographic conditions, account for the differing patterns of migration selectivity. The analysis is confined to five variables: age, sex, marital status, occupation and education. The censuses of India, 1961 and 1971 are the chief sources of data. Important findings emerging from this study are: Rural-urban migration is highly selective of young adults, but female migrants in these states are younger than male migrants. Female migrants are still younger in Bihar and West Bengal than in Kerala because of the difference in age at marriage, whilst there is no difference in the age at migration of males in these states. Rural to urban migration is highly selective of males, and the incidence of male selectivity is greater in Bihar than in West Bengal and in West Bengal than in Kerala. Sex is found to be associated with distance in migration; at shorter distances, females predominate and at longer distances, males predominate. With regard to marital status of migrants, there are some marked variations between the sexes and states. For instance, in all states single males are more migratory than either married males or single females. However, both never married and ever married males are more migratory in Kerala than in Bihar and West Bengal. Single females are more migratory in Kerala than in Bihar and West Bengal. Migrants tend to show a higher rate of workforce participation than non-migrants at destination. The economic motive for female migration is quite weak in these states, but it is still weaker in Bihar and West Bengal relative to Kerala. Education plays a very decisive role in rural to urban migration. Educated persons are more likely to migrate than illiterate and merely literate persons. Educated female migrants are more likely to be non-workers in Bihar and West Bengal and workers in Kerala. Although contrasts in economic conditions are much greater between West Bengal on the one hand and Bihar and Kerala on the other, differences in the patterns of migration selectivity are much sharper between Bihar and West Bengal on the one hand and Kerala on the other. Social and cultural variations, particularly with regard to the age at marriage, marriage practices, level of literacy, status of women, practice of familial migration and female workforce participation, between North and South India seem to explain the differing patterns of migratory behaviour much more than economic variables. As regional variations exercise a profound impact on the migratory behaviour of a population, it is hard to evolve universally applicable differentials of migration. It is for this reason that little progress has been made towards building a general theory of differentials in migration