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Contributed articles

Dismissing the postulate that the geographical, linguistic and other social divisions are constraining the movement of Indians across states, researchers have presented evidences—pattern of rail passenger traffic, changes in population distribution across different age cohorts and so on to show that the movement of people across states is much larger than what has been generally determined, using the data from the census and National Sample Survey. The basic objective of the paper is to examine if the process of migration and urbanisation in India is indeed unconstrained so that the people in backward regions and rural areas, who get dispossessed of their livelihood options or social linkages, can freely move into the developed regions or urban areas, It analyses these processes and recent trends while probing into methodological and data related issues in migration studies in India. The migration trends for socio-economically vulnerable sections of population are presented in the context of their access to urban and metropolitan space.

This study argues that India's urban growth is more sluggish than most observers believe and that the developed states and large cities are receiving most of that growth, while backward areas and smaller towns are tending to stagnate. Although adult male migration is considered as an effective mechanism for improving economic well-being and escaping poverty, their net migration into urban areas has not gone up over the past five decades. A slow and top-heavy pattern of Indian urbanisation is contributing to persistent inequalities. More importantly, the recent moves for empowerment of local bodies through a new system of urban governance have also contributed to increased spatial inequality. Obvious responses would be more inclusive population policies in the successful and large urban centres or, alternatively, more support for economic growth in smaller urban centres. The first is likely to face political obstacles, as urban elites and the middle class do not want to accommodate a large influx of low-income migrants. The second is also likely to face economic obstacles, as it can be difficult to find good public investment opportunities in smaller urban centres. However, without urban growth, the pursuit of both economic growth and equality will eventually be compromised.

The present paper examines the trends in rural and urban poverty, analyses the interstate variations and explains these in terms of socio-economic factors. It shows that rural poverty declines smoothly with economic development, which unfortunately is not the case with urban poverty. The availability of water supply, toilets and electricity, that are not explicitly incorporated in the official definition of poverty, has also been analysed at the state level as also across size class of urban settlements. It is argued that the small and medium towns have a weak and unstable economic base. As a consequence, most of these are not in a position to generate funds to provide civic services to all sections of population. These towns, particularly those located in less developed states, should, therefore, be the major concern of government policy. Further, overviewing the changing system of governance, it argues that the seventy-fourth Constitutional Amendment, has not succeeded in genuine empowerment of civic bodies. The power now seems to have shifted from the state governments to the financial institutions, international donors and credit rating agencies. Finally, the capacity of the government to generate employment directly through anti-poverty programmes would remain limited. The paper, therefore, recommends that the anti-poverty programmes should primarily be focussed on provision of basic amenities.