Migration has always shaped India’s social and economic landscape. For millions of young people, moving away from villages to towns and cities is not simply a matter of aspiration but often one of compulsion. Much like the protagonists of the recent Indian film Homebound, they find themselves torn between the promises of the city and the pull of home — between opportunity and belonging.
While mobility is a natural feature of an evolving economy, the alarming scale and patterns of youth migration highlight deeper structural issues: the failure to generate dignified rural employment, inadequate educational linkages with jobs and uneven regional development. The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare these vulnerabilities when nearly 40 million workers were forced to return home during the first lockdown in 2020 (RBI, 2020). This mass exodus was not only a humanitarian crisis but also a reminder that rural India continues to be both a source of labour and a potential site for revitalization.
According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2020–21, almost 29% of India’s population were classified as migrants, with 89% originating from rural areas. Among youth, migration is especially significant: over 50% of migrants are aged between 15 and 25, suggesting that India’s most productive workforce is leaving its villages.
Gender patterns are sharply divided. For men, migration is predominantly work-related, while for women, 86.8% migrate due to marriage. This leads to a peculiar paradox: while women form the majority of migrants statistically, their mobility rarely translates into economic participation. Men, on the other hand, migrate largely in search of livelihoods but often end up in insecure, informal work.
The economic profile of migrants shows that migration is strongly tied to poverty and marginalization. Households in the lowest Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE) groups and those dependent on casual labour are far more likely to migrate. Studies further reveal that Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) record higher migration rates, reflecting structural inequities.
Education, once seen as a guaranteed escape from poverty, no longer insulates young people from migration pressures. Many who leave villages for cities carry little formal schooling, while others hold degrees that fail to translate into secure jobs.
The irony is striking: while India has expanded access to higher education, opportunities have not kept pace. Graduate unemployment has surged over the past decade, highlighting a growing mismatch between what education promises and what the labour market delivers.
Urban centres absorb these migrants, but often under exploitative conditions. Data indicate that nearly 49% of youth migrants work as daily wage labourers and another 39% as industrial workers, mostly on short-term or contract arrangements. India’s urban workforce remains overwhelmingly informal, leaving migrants without social security, health coverage, or stable incomes.
The pandemic amplified these vulnerabilities, as millions of workers were stranded without jobs or shelter. Young women were especially disadvantaged, as they were more likely to lose employment and slower to regain it compared to men (ILO, 2021).
Beyond the human cost, migration exerts enormous pressure on cities. With India projected to add 416 million urban residents between 2018 and 2050 (UN World Urbanization Prospects), the strain on housing, transport, water, sanitation, and air quality is already acute.
Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru struggle with overcrowded slums, mounting waste, traffic congestion, and worsening pollution levels. Migration, therefore, becomes both a symptom and a stressor: it reveals rural distress while deepening urban crises.
Yet, the Covid-19 reverse migration also revealed another possibility. Agriculture proved unexpectedly resilient during the pandemic. The Ministry of Agriculture reported a 39% increase in sown area in 2020 compared to previous years, largely because returning workers helped boost farm labour.
Stories like that of Balaram Mahadev Bandagale from Raigad, Maharashtra, illustrate the potential. Once confined to a factory job in Mumbai, he returned to his village during the lockdown, used an irrigation scheme to diversify from paddy to mango orchards and today enjoys both higher income and better quality of life. Similarly, Chandrakant Pawar, who once worked odd jobs in Mumbai, returned to dairy farming in Raigad and is now the Sarpanch of his village, a symbol of reverse migration success.
New ways to boos rural jobs
These experiences point to the urgent need for rethinking India’s development geography. If rural and peri-urban regions are to retain their youth, they must offer viable non-farm opportunities alongside modernized agriculture. Beyond traditional avenues like dairy, poultry and food processing, promising sectors include handicrafts, rural logistics, renewable energy services, agri-tourism and eco-tourism, rural BPOs and digital gig work.
The rise of e-commerce has opened markets for local products, whether artisanal crafts, processed foods or niche organic produce, allowing rural youth to become entrepreneurs rather than wage seekers. Government schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, Start-up India and the expansion of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) provide platforms for enterprise creation, but they need greater scale, integration and youth-focused design.
Similarly, the renewable energy push with solar panel maintenance, microgrid operations and biofuel units has potential to create thousands of decentralized rural jobs. Strengthening rural digital infrastructure is critical, not only to bridge the digital divide but also to enable access to e-commerce, online services, telemedicine and remote work. Together, these opportunities can transform migration from a compulsion into a choice, offering rural youth dignified livelihoods without abandoning their communities.
Dismantling the stigma
The deeper challenge lies in dismantling the stigma that associates returning to villages with failure. Migration should not be a forced necessity but a genuine choice. Showcasing success stories of reverse migrants who built dignified livelihoods at home can reshape perceptions and inspire others. At the same time, social protection systems must be portable, ensuring health, education, and security follow migrants regardless of location.
Migration in India is not inherently negative. In a globalized economy, people must have the freedom to move for opportunities. But what is troubling is that most youth migrate not out of aspiration but because their villages offer little future. The result is a dual crisis: overstretched, inequitable cities on one side, and depopulated, economically stagnant rural areas on the other. A balanced strategy that invests in rural enterprise, skills, infrastructure, and social dignity can transform migration from a story of compulsion into one of empowerment.
If India fails to act, its next generation will continue to stream into cities driven by desperation, perpetuating cycles of hardship. But if it chooses to invest in rural futures, migration can be redefined, not as an escape, but as an option among many dignified livelihoods. That is the critical shift India now needs.
(Vinaya Kumar HM is Assistant Professor, Keladi Shivappa Nayaka University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga (Karnataka), India.
Vegard Iversen, Professor of Development Economics, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK.
Chinmay Tumbe, Associate Professor, Economics Area, Indian Institute of Management, Ahemdabad, India.)
