Table Of ContentMigration of Labour in India
Migration – both within and between countries – is increasingly one of the
world’s most important policy issues. The faster the Indian economy grows, the
larger will be the geographical redistribution of the workforce from localities
of low to those of high employment growth. Thus, territorial mobility is fun-
damental both to realizing the full economic potential of India’s people and to
allowing the population to escape from rural poverty.
The book analyses the decisive factors in labour migration. Based upon a thorough
and robust examination of migrants to three slum localities of Delhi stretching over
four decades, the author examines why people migrate, the circumstances of their
decision and their experience at their destination. He investigates the myths of urban
policy – that “rural development” will reduce migration to the cities, that “growth
poles” can be created to divert migrant flows, and that government has the power
to influence significantly migration scales and directions while pursuing essentially
unpredictable market-driven economic growth.
Testing the essential theoretical basis for urban policy in India, the book is of
interest to academics studying migration of labour and urbanization, and those
interested in South Asian Studies.
Himmat Singh Ratnoo teaches in the Department of Economics at Maharshi
Dayanand University, India. His research interests include migration and
urbanization.
Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com
108 Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh
Development, Piety and Neoliberal Governmentality
Mohammad Musfequs Salehin
109 Ethics in Governance in India
Bidyut Chakrabarty
110 Popular Hindi Cinema
Aesthetic Formations of the Seen and Unseen
Ronie Parciack
111 Activist Documentary Film in Pakistan
The Emergence of a Cinema of Accountability
Rahat Imran
112 Culture, Health and Development in South Asia
Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh
M. Saiful Islam
113 India’s Approach to Development Cooperation
Edited by Sachin Chaturvedi and Anthea Mulakala
114 Education and Society in Bhutan
Tradition and modernisation
Chelsea M. Robles
115 Sri Lanka’s Global Factory Workers
(Un) Disciplined Desires and Sexual Struggles
in a Post-Colonial Society
Sandya Hewamanne
116 Migration of Labour in India
The squatter settlements of Delhi
Himmat Singh Ratnoo
Migration of Labour in India
The squatter settlements of Delhi
Himmat Singh Ratnoo
Foreword by Nigel Harris
First published 2017
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2017 Himmat Singh Ratnoo
The right of Himmat Singh Ratnoo to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ratnoo, Himmat Singh, author.
Title: Migration of labour in India : the squatter settlements of Delhi /
Himmat Singh Ratnoo.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. |
Series: Routledge contemporary South Asia series ; 116 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016004652 | ISBN 9781138962736 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315659220 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Migrant labor—India. | Labor mobility—India. |
Rural-urban migration—India. | Urbanization—India. | Migration,
Internal—India.
Classification: LCC HD5856.I4 R37 2016 | DDC 331.5/440954—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016004652
ISBN: 978-1-138-96273-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-65922-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Balubai
And in loving memory of
Chandi Dan ji
Karian Devi
Deenu
Dhanpati Devi
Dr Mahadev Prasad Saha
Professor Surajbhan
Narpat Lal Bhati
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Contents
List of maps x
List of figures xi
List of tables xiii
Foreword xvi
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xviii
Glossary xxii
Abbreviations xxiii
1 Introduction: background and organisation of the case study 1
Introduction 1
Theoretical and analytical background of the case study 2
Problem 13
Empirical backdrop of the case study 13
Hypotheses 15
Choice of Delhi for the case study 15
Generalising nature of the present case study 15
Structure of the book 16
References 18
2 Method in the sample survey 23
Introduction 23
Why only the squatter settlements? 23
The process of sample selection 24
The survey 27
Retracing the criterion migrants after 17 years for a resurvey
in 2009 27
References 28
viii Contents
3 Socio-economic status of migrants before migration 29
Introduction 29
A test on the area explanation of migration 30
Occupational status and employment 32
Assessment of economic position in the agricultural context 41
Socio-economic indicators of status 48
Migrants’ economic and social position 50
Qualitative analysis of the socioeconomic position 52
Conclusion 54
References 56
4 Channels of information, job expectation and the process
of migration 57
Introduction 57
Pre-migration urban visits, contacts, information and advice 57
Pre-migration knowledge of vacancies and chances to get work
in Delhi 62
Attitudinal patterns of families towards migration to Delhi:
an evidence of family strategy 63
Patterns of job search, waiting and support in the urban labour
market 65
Jobs in Delhi 72
Why not work in the village? 80
Additional observations on the process of migration 82
Conclusion 86
References 87
5 Retrospective on the process of migration two
decades later 88
Introduction 88
Whereabouts in 2009 88
Occupational status and mobility of the respondents 91
What has changed in the jobs? 99
How are new jobs different from the old ones? 100
Change in skill 101
Regarding those who were nonworkers in 2009 102
A retrospective on the process of migration by those who stayed
in Delhi 102
Conclusion 104
References 104
Contents ix
6 Discovering and characterising groups of migrants 105
Introduction 105
Clustering analysis 105
Groups emerging from the clustering exercise 106
Significance of differences between groups 106
Conclusion 110
References 110
7 Who stays and who returns? 111
Introduction 111
The concept and illustration of the decision-tree method 111
The decision-tree model with respect to the ‘stay or return’
dichotomy 113
Analysis of the dynamics of ‘stay or return’ on the basis of
knowledge gained from the decision tree 114
Conclusion 116
References 117
8 Conclusion 118
References 127
Appendix A: Empirical backdrop of starting the present
longitudinal study in the early 1990s: a detailed note on
then-prevalent interpretation of inter-State rural to urban
migration in India 131
Appendix B: Methodological details of the sample surveys and
demographic profile of the criteria migrants 137
Appendix C: Ownership, leasing-in and leasing-out of land 147
Appendix D: Occupational moves at the sub-sectoral level 153
Appendix E: Methodological details relating to data-mining
techniques applied in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 156
Appendix F: Statistical tables 163
Appendix G: Details relating to the reduced dataset 193
Appendix H: The four questionnaires and a letter format used
during different stages of the study 204
Index 231
