Urbanization and migration in India

Major points of focus:

1) Lack of diversification within agrarian economy

2) 2) Most of the migrants absorbed in urban informal economy
3) Forced migration not good, though
4) Growth of slums expected to be 300% by 2050
5) Fall in migration since past two decades (21% in the 90s)
6) Bihar,Rajasthan,UP : Migration reduced after independence.
7) As compared to 36%people who said migration gives better life in 1983, only 25% believe so
now

Financial institutions that support urban sector:

1) HUDCO - Housing and Urban Development Corporation

a. provide loans for urban development projects and associated institutional support had
opened a new window in 1989 to provide funds for infrastructure projects. Availability
of loans from this window, generally at less than the market rate, had made the state
and city level agencies including the municipalities depend increasingly on it
2) ILFS - Infrastructure Lease and Financial Services
a. helped local bodies, para-statal agencies and private organisations in preparing
feasibility reports for infrastructure projects, detailing out the pricing and cost recovery
mechanisms
3) LIC - Life Insurance Corporation
a. provides loans directly to municipalities and other local and state level agencies

Central & state Government schemes:

1) For slums
2) For smaller towns
3) 8 states got 70% of the funds (MP, UP, Gujarat, West Bengal etc)
4) Swarna Jayanti Yojna
5) Shahari Rojgaar Yojna

Benefits of migration:

1) State of living
2) Rise in average income
3) Employment
4) Independence

Why low migration tendency among Indians?

1) Caste system
 2) Joint families
3) Lack of education
4) Values and traditions of family
5) predominance of agriculture and semi-feudal land relations

Important issues to be addressed?

1. Measurement of poverty in urban areas

2. Economic Development urban poverty

3. Regional inequality, poverty and migration

4. Urban poor and problems of livelihood

5. Feminisation of poverty in urban areas

6. Access of urban poor to credits and capital

7. Housing the poor

8. Pricing of civic amenities and management of basic services

9. Access of poor to education and health services

10. Right to food and basic amenities

11. Poverty and Urban violence

Reforms required?

1) Constitutional amendments
2) Implementation of laws and schemes
3) Wider reach of allocated money
4) to improve the lives of existing slum dwellers
5) to plan for adequate alternatives for future urban growth

It would be erroneous to restrict the analysis of urbanization and migration to a few mega cities and
ignore the smaller towns in India as the data suggest that the latter report higher levels of poverty and
greater deprivation in terms of quality of life. Furthermore, globalisation strategies have opened up
possibilities of resource mobilisation for large cities by strengthening their internal resource base and
enabling them to attract funds from global capital market and institutional sources. Unfortunately, most
of these avenues have not opened up for smaller towns as their economic base is very low, offering little
possibility to local government for internal resource mobilization with no business opportunity for the
actors in capital market.
The data from NSS for the past two decades too confirm the declining trend of migration for males, both
in rural and urban areas, although the fall is less than that reported in the Census. Importantly, the
migration rates had declined to all time low levels in 1993 but after that, there has been slight recovery.
The fact that percentages of migrants in 1993-94 are marginally above the figures for 1999-00, similar to
what was noted using the data from Population Census, may be attributed to more liberal definition of
migrants adopted in the 55th round of NSS, as discussed above. However, considering the period from
1983 to 1999-00, one would reconfirm that mobility has declined over the period. In case of women, the
percentage of migrants has gone up marginally as this is determined by socio-cultural factors that
respond slowly with time. The general conclusion thus emerges unmistakably is that mobility of men,
which is often linked to the strategy of seeking livelihood, has gone down systematically over the past
few decades.

The Eleventh Plan expresses concern regarding deteriorating infrastructural situation in cities that are
absorbing large proportions of the incremental urban population. It lays major emphasis on Jawaharlal
Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission launched in the fourth year of the last plan “in a mission mode”.
Never before have the select large cities received per capita allocation on such a large scale for
infrastructural investment with Additional Central Assistance coming as grants. The other special feature
is that the Mission has succeeded to a large extent in getting the state and city governments to commit
themselves to structural reforms which the Central government had failed to achieve despite adopting
several measures and incentive schemes since early nineties (#Taken from 11th plan).