Poverty, Migration and Development in Rural Bihar 1981‐2015

Aims & Objectives: Under the aegis of IHD’s Bihar Research Programme, this project investigated paucity of data and major gaps in knowledge about migration from Bihar, a phenomenon which directly and indirectly affects more than 100 million of its population.

The objectives of the study included:

• Studying the dynamics of poverty, migration and development in Bihar, with focus on both source and destination areas;
• Examining the socio‐economic factors behind migration in rural areas in Bihar and its impact on the individual migrants and their families as well as its larger implications for the village economy;
• Analysing how migration has played a role in social and economic mobility in rural Bihar; The linkages between migration and development within Bihar and between Bihar and rest of the Indian economy;
• Suggesting policy options for taking greater advantage of migration flows to accelerate Bihar’s own development, and to mitigate the adverse effects of migration.

Methodology: The study was based on the collection of primary data, both from the areas of origin and destination. A questionnaire incorporating aspects of migration was disseminated among the sample households across 12 villages in 7 districts of Bihar. It used both quantitative and qualitative methods for the household census and included a special module for returning migrants, community surveys, and interviews with key informants, focus group discussions with migrants and non‐migrants. Full-scale data collection began in January 2017 which covered interviews with 1509 households (1000 panel households, and 509 non‐ panel households) 2016 to examine the socio-economic attributes of migration in rural areas of Bihar and its impact on the individual migrants and their families as well as its larger implications for village society and economy.

Findings & Discussion:

• Nearly one in five people in Bihar is a migrant
• Migration streams are highly masculinised, with 85 percent of all migrants being men
• Migrants are more likely to be literate than residents
• Migration rates are higher amongst higher castes, and drops as one moves down the caste hierarchy.
• The state’s advanced agricultural districts in the south had the lowest migration levels, while its poorest and flood-prone districts in the north showed the highest.
• The majority of current migrants migrate for over ten months in a year with a typical migrant staying in his current destination for an average of 10 years.

Migration for education is quite high with illiterates to be the least likely to migrate, while graduates the most. Higher education levels helped to secure better work at the destination and suggested that belonging to an upper caste allowed individuals to exercise their agency beyond social networks in accessing work and employment.