What Human Migration within India tells us

Budget came and went, nearly like a whimper. What was debated till no end was whether demonetisation would affect the rate of economic growth and its future path.

What a lot of us missed were the smaller details that continue to be pertinent to India today as they were when we gained Independence in 1947.

A big picture that emerged from the Economic Survey related with human migration within India. Nearly 9 million people moved to other cities and villages in the 5 years between 2011 and 2016.

Of these, nearly 20% moved from rural countryside to cities and 10% overall stated that employment was the main reason to pack their lock, stock and barrel.

This indicates that not only are there not sufficient opportunities in villages, it is also amply proven that rising crime in metropolitans, pollution and unhygienic living conditions are due to the large incoming population in search of better opportunities and life.

Predictably, Delhi/National Capital Region is the top destination followed by states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Gujarat. The states that send out the most people are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal among others.

Mahatma Gandhi used to say, if a village perishes, India perishes too. He was one of the strongest advocates of developing villages and making them self-sufficient with autonomous governance – political and social.

Gandhiji felt that mass scale industrialization might lead to the exploitation of rural folk. While one cannot but advocate the necessity to develop manufacturing bases in the country, he felt that small scale manufacturing units must also be set up in villages to help them become self-contained units that cater to basic necessities and provide reasonably good infrastructure, education and employment opportunities.

We have developed the Panchayati Raj system but done little to keep the axis of development evenly balances between the urban and rural areas. In fact, all of our growth has been lop sided leading to unplanned enlargement of urban areas that do not have adequate facilities to cope with the growing number of people.

In 2015, data of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census was released and the figures for the rural sector were Cimmerian. Half of total rural households fall in what is defined as deprived category, which means one these indicators holds true - no literate adult in the household, family living in single room or kutcha houses, absence of male adults in household etc.

Worse still, 51.14 % of rural people is engaged in manual casual labour, clearly showing a lack of better job options. Only 5% people had a salaried government job, and 3.57 % a private sector job. The highest salary in 75% of the households was less than Rs 5000/- per month.

With new initiatives in recent years like skill development and MNREGA, we have yet another chance to create sustainable eco-systems of livelihood. Further, some benefits and tax breaks could be given to local businessmen who set up production and service units in their villages and domicile areas.

Also, development can be linked successfully with the weather conditions, flora, fauna and ecological terrain. For example, in many hill areas that are known to be fruit belts, many cottage industries can be set up for processing fruit, making jams, squashes etc. Limited opportunities in this field have been exploited by Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Similar initiatives can be taken in coastal villages, desert areas etc. and then knitted into a larger model across the state to create economies of scale. Gujarat’s Amul is a shining example of this.

So while we have a large number of small constituents across villages, they could be tied together to create a large conglomerate – a successful Gandhian model to suit contemporary age.

Unfortunately, in India, the rural sector has not been able to tap non-agricultural opportunities and only a paltry 2.7% of rural households have been able to use entrepreneurial skills in this area.

While most of the western world lives and thrives in towns and cities, success has been found in the same ‘bottom-up’ approach in countries like Scotland, which used local assets and know-how to make the model successful.

The whole point is that a person mostly loves his place of origin and would much rather live in the same space, which has memories of his childhood and growing up years, as long as it is economically viable to stay there and raise a family. This will also automatically improve the quality of our lives and bring cheer to our happiness index.

India has done much work in this space, but the possibilities are unlimited. Rural India can truly unlock the country’s potential if the correct policy frameworks and will to execute such programs give it the right push and direction.

And what better time can there be than now - after all we live in an era when “Sabka Saath and Sabka Vikas” are buzzwords.