Rural Urban Migration Case Study

The study of migration of people is important to understand the transitory phase ofdevelopment of a country by knowing the trends of rural to urban migration over a period oftime. There is a close association between the trends of migration and the development phaseof the country.Migration is the geographic movement of people acrossadministrative/political boundarieswith a permanent or semi-permanent nature of residence. As per the provision of right tomovement to the citizens of India by the constitution of India, the people of India are free tomove anywhere in India in search of better opportunities or otherwise. Migration refers to themovement of an individual or family or group of persons from one place to another placewith change in residence

The mushrooming ofslums near the cities/urban centers, due to continuous flowof migrants from rural area to the urban area is consideredas a big challenge. A study done by economic and socialcommission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP, 1991)observed that “migration from rural to urban areas continuesat a rapid pace in many countries of the region, and it wasoften beyond the capacity of towns, cities and metropolitanareas to cope with the increasing numbers. The increasingtrends of rural to urban migration should be seriouslyreviewed in the context of development of slums in urbanarea. No doubt, migration is essential for development and itis a desirable phenomenon but what is not desirable is theincreasing flow of distressed migrates from rural to urbanarea which results into overcrowding of cities anddevelopment of slums. Migration and slums are inextricablylinked, as labor demand in cities and the resulting rural to urban migration creates greater pressures to accommodatemore people. Much of the growth of slums is due to themigration of people of economically weaker sections fromrural area to urban area. It has been observed that rural labormigrates towards urban areas and settled down in slum. Thegreat slums of India are predominantly created because largenumbers of individuals or families move to the urbancenters of their dreams, usually in search of better economicprospects. As per census 2011, 68 million Indians lived inslums, comprising one-quarter of the population of India’s19 cities with more than 1 million residents. In Mumbaialmost 50 percent population lives in slums and in Kolkata32percent of the population lives in slums. The slum growthin the cities through fresh arrivals from the countrysideincreases competition for limited resources. Twenty-five percent of urban households have no access to drinking waterwithin their premises, 22 per cent have no bathroom,