A Study of Migration Pattern in Kumaun Hills and Associated Socio-Economic Factors

Migration is the physical movement of people from one place to another in search of improved livelihood and security. The hill and mountainous states of India are the worst sufferers of migration. Uttarakhand is one of the Indian hill states with 10 hill districts. The present study was conducted in Almora district of Kumaun Uttarakhand taking a random sample of 125 rural families from randomly selected 12 villages of six blocks. The objective of the study was to delineate the migration pattern in hills and associated socio-economic factors. Results showed that majority of the sampled families (31.20%) were having more than 3 migrant members. It was found that majority of the migrants (77%) were males. The study revealed that majority of the migrants (46%) were belonged to the age group of 15–30 years. It was also found that majority of the migration (83.33%) occurred from the households belonged to others castes. It was revealed that most of the migration (75%) occurred from the households having no land. It was also found that most of the migration (63.10%) occurred from the households having annual income of Rs 50000/- or less. It was exposed that males were mostly migrated for employment (38%) and females were mostly migrated for marriage (59.76%). The most important factor behind migration from hills was identified to be unemployment. The study suggests that more employment opportunities in terms of diversified farming, IT centres, agro-tourism etc. should be promoted in rural hill areas and it should be supported by infrastructural facilities for education, health, market, electricity, drinking water etc. to retain the rural youths in hills.