Rural Urban Migration in Assam: The Drivers and Impact on Agricultural Productivity and Female Workforce Participation

Abstract

For a country like India, which suffers from the problem of regional inequality, the incidence of outmigration is linked to the pattern of regional development. Both push and pull factors are in operation behind large scale rural urban migration in the country. Farm households in rural India are found to have difficulty in sustaining livelihood through agriculture due to lack of productive investment in the sector. As an alternative, these households are found to have invested their agricultural surplus in other non-farm activities. A large proportion of the rural workforce are reported to have migrated to urban centres in search of alternative livelihood opportunities in urban informal sector. This labour movement from agriculture to other sectors has often resulted in labour shortages in agriculture. Such labour shortage can have negative impact on agricultural productivity and may have implications for land lease market as well. On the other hand, the amount of remittances sent by the migrant workers can positively impact agricultural productivity back home, provided the remittances are properly invested in agriculture. An important feature of migration in India is that it is male-dominated. So, the absence of male members from rural households can have an impact on the workforce participation rate among the left-behind female members.