MIGRATION IN INDIA, 2020-2021

About:

• The ‘Migration in India’ report, which is based on first-time collection of additional data during the annual round of Periodic Labour Force Survey for July 2020-June 2021, separates the categories of ‘temporary visitors’ and ‘migrants’.
• ‘Temporary Visitors’ have been defined as the ones who arrived in households after March 2020 and stayed continuously for a period of 15 days or more but less than 6 months.
• ‘Migrants’ have been defined as those, for whom the last usual place of residence, any time in the past, is different from the present place of enumeration.

Key findings of the report

• After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, 0.7 per cent of India’s population was recorded as a ‘temporary visitor’ across households during the July 2020-June 2021 period.
• Over 84 % of these 0.7 % ‘temporary visitors’ moved for reasons linked to the pandemic ranging from loss of job, closure of educational institutions and health related reasons.
• The all-India migration rate was 28.9 per cent for July 2020-June 2021, with 26.5 per cent migration rate in rural areas and 34.9 per cent in urban areas.
• Females recorded a higher share of migration rate of 47.9 per cent, with 48 per cent in rural areas and 47.8 per cent in urban areas. The migration rate for males was seen at 10.7 per cent, with 5.9 per cent in rural areas and 22.5 per cent in urban areas.
• Among females, the highest level of migration rate was seen at 86.8 per cent for marriage, while 49.6 per cent of the males migrated due to employment related reasons.