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What Villagers Want- Study of the Mind of Rural India on Migration to Urban Landscapes

YASHAS S DAS

ABSTRACT

Rural Urban migration in India is driven by various factors like prevailing economic, social, geographic and environmental conditions, availability of infrastructural facilities and effectiveness of state interventions. This research report attempts to investigate the issue from the perspective of people who have not yet migrated by collecting and collating views and aspirations from villages which are places of origin as opposed to cities and towns which form the destinations with an aim to provide a pan India comparative picture for policy makers and other researchers. Fundamental questions of desire for migration, reasons for migration, barriers to migration and type of migration (temporary or permanent) one aspires for are quantitatively surveyed and statistically analysed across different identities of gender, age group, education level, income group, social group, region, religion, and land holding. Proliferation and effectiveness of three major large-scale government interventions are also captured and analysed. Quantitative analysis of responses to key questions mentioned above shows a broad similarity across regions and religions, moderate similarity across gender, variance across age groups and strong variance across educational levels, income groups and land holding, though with outliers in all of these. These similarities and variances identified can help policymakers with the broad directions at which to target their interventions both in scale and type. Rural Urban migration in India is driven by various factors like prevailing economic, social, geographic and environmental conditions, availability of infrastructural facilities and effectiveness of state interventions. This research report attempts to investigate the issue from the perspective of people who have not yet migrated by collecting and collating views and aspirations from villages which are places of origin as opposed to cities and towns which form the destinations with an aim to provide a pan India comparative picture for policy makers and other researchers. Fundamental questions of desire for migration, reasons for migration, barriers to migration and type of migration (temporary or permanent) one aspires for are quantitatively surveyed and statistically analysed across different identities of gender,
age group, education level, income group, social group, region, religion, and land holding. Proliferation and effectiveness of three major large-scale government interventions are also captured and analysed. Quantitative analysis of responses to key questions mentioned above show a broad similarity across regions and religions, moderate similarity across gender, variance across age groups and strong variance across educational levels, income groups and land holding though with outliers in all of these. These similarities and variances identified can help policymakers with the broad directions at which to target their interventions both in scale and type.

Citation: Yashas S Das, I. (2026). What Villagers Want- Study of the Mind of Rural India on Migration to Urban Landscapes. International Institute of Migration and Development.