RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN SOUTH INDIA

T. Scarlett Epstein

I)         HYPOTHESIS:

“Increasing village population in a setting of limited land availability as well as the scarcity of water and a virtual absence of off-farm income-earning opportunities in rural areas coupled with the well-documented  urban bias  in development illustrated by the rural-urban differential in the availability of schools, hospitals etc jointly constitute the causes of the ever-increasing rate of rural-urban migration. It is the “push” rather than the “pull” factor that induces villagers to migrate to cities.”

II)        QUALITATIVE STUDY METHODS:

A) Case studies of different types and categories of rural migrants: I re-visited the two South Indian villages I had studied  for almost 50 years and collect information there about  all those who had left for urban settlements and also those who were commuting with nearby towns. This showed  that most of the migrants had gone to Bangalore, the capital city where I tried to track them down and collected lengthy in depth studies  in line with  the  Interview Schedule I had compiled. I visited each informant several times at his place of residence and if  possible also at his place of work. Almost all of our selected interviewees were prepared to answer our many questions and share their experiences and views with us.

B) In-depth interviews of employers of these migrants; in most cases they were labour contractors. These interviews indicated that in many cases a kind of Patron-Client relationship had developed between the labour contractor and the workers he employed.

C) High School Students:

To discover how the present village adolescents see their own future  I arranged for village high school students to let me have:

a)   their choice of the three most preferred occupations out of a randomly arranged list of   possible occupations and

b)essays on “What I expect my life will be like in 15 years”

 D) Village Youth 20 to 30 years of age       

I announced in each of “my” two villages that I would offer money prizes for the three best essays  on the topic “ What do I expect my life to be like in 20 years” to be written in the vernacular and to be judged by the local school headmaster and Dr. Ramaswamy.

III)      SUMMARY  FINDINGS

A)  Hypothesis verified: Analysis of the collected case studies supported my hypothesis. All of the informants listed the following reasons for their decision to leave their native village:

a)         Lack of suitable income-earning opportunities

b)         Poor medical and educational facilities

All of them also complained about the lack of social cohesion in urban living and stated that they missed their caring village societies.

Most of them still have regular contact with their village kin and return for rituals and festivals.  Many try their best to offer financial support to their aged parents still living in the villages and if they have any title to land they let their brothers cultivate it, who then share with them the harvested crops. 

B)  Factors that determine a migrant’s success or failure in the city:

a)         Caste is still a major determining factor.

i)    Dominant Caste: Villagers who belong to the  regionally dominant Peasant Caste were the only ones who managed to make a reasonable living for themselves and their families in the city, but not all of them succeeded like this.

   ii)  Functionary Caste members, such as Carpenters and    Blacksmith all eked out a meagre living in the urban slums.

            iii)  Scheduled Caste members remained at the bottom of the socio-economic hierarchy even in the urban environment. They live in  the urban slums under appalling  conditions.

b)         Gender strongly influences the kind of work a rural-urban migrant performs.

                  i)      Male migrants usually are employed either on jobs that require handling some technical gadgets or higher educational standards. Many of them work as marble polishers for labour contractors on a daily wage ranging from £1 to £1.50. and stay in sub-standard slum accommodation where 50 people often have to share one washing facility and one toilet.

                  ii)      Female migrants

                  Many of the women work as machinists in large garment factories where they make clothes items for the multinational retailers like GAP and NEXT  for minimal wages but under reasonable working conditions. Multinational  representatives periodically visit these Indian factories to check on  working conditions but display no interest in  the low wages the workers receive.

c)      Network relationship is another factor that determines whether or not  a villager will succeed in the city even if he/she is a member of the dominant Peasant caste.

            All of the Peasant caste members from “my” two South Indian villages who made a reasonable living for themselves in Bangalore city  were helped in finding employment by someone of their own or higher caste who had lived in the city for numerous years and was already reasonably well established.

d)      Knowledge of English also plays an important part in deciding the fate of rural urban migrants. Those who know English have a much better chance to secure higher paid jobs than those who speak only the vernacular.

C)  How Village Young People perceive their future: The essays and other data  obtained from village youth clearly indicate that unless rural conditions improve they see no future for themselves in their native villages. The majority of them aspire to jobs in the Public Service because such positions offer security of income and pensions. Yet they all stress that moving to a city  will make them miss the friendly and caring atmosphere that they enjoy in their native villages.  

IV)      RECOMMENDATIONS

                              1) To reduce the ever-growing rate of rural-urban migration which has adverse effects both on the cities in terms of increased violence and crime while at the same time it denudes the villages of its members in their productive age groups the existing rural-urban imbalances  need to be redressed to ensure that rural to urban migration ceases to be a survival strategy for the poorest villagers.    

                              2)  All villagers disregarding their caste status must be given access to improved education and health facilities to reduce the growing rate of economic differentiation.

V.                 COMMUNICATION OF FINDINGS:

1)      BACK TO THE VILLAGE,  a 26 documentary film which has been shown at the large donor agencies in America and England

2)      T. Scarlett Epstein (2007) ‘Poverty, Caste and Migration in South India’ in Deepa Narayan & Patty Petesh (eds) Out of Poverty – Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Mobility, Palgrave MacMillan and the World Bank.