Internal Migration and Rural Inequalities in India

The study examines the effects of seasonal and permanent migration on rural inequalities in India. We apply the counterfactual method to estimate income using the Indian Human Development Survey, Wave II (2012) dataset. Findings reveal that seasonal migration is a distress-driven strategy adopted by the poor as opposed to permanent migration wherein there is high participation of better-off migrants. The effects of seasonal and permanent migration on income inequalities show similar paths. Using Gini decompositions and instrumental quantile regression, we find that while both seasonal and permanent migration improves within-group and between-group inequalities, seasonal migration benefits the poorest of the poor. The effect of migration follows an approximate U-shaped pattern for permanent migration and a decreasing trend for seasonal migration. The robustness of the results is checked using propensity score matching and instrumental variable regression. The study advocates that successful policy intervention rests in realising migration as an inevitable feature of development.