Space Beyond The Cities

Context: For equitable social and economic outcomes, India needs to address the reality of inequality of opportunity.

Rural-Urban Migration in India:

• Demographic significance: About nine million people migrate every year within the country, and about 139 million Indians are migrants.
• Location Premium as a determinant of the movement of people:
  • The attractiveness of a location — location premium — plays an important role in rural-urban migration, sometimes even at the cost of social hierarchy.
  • For example, an economic migrant can, on average, expect to be better off in the lower economic classes than in the middle classes of rural India. It often trumps the inequality proposition.

Way forward: Addressing inequality of opportunity

• Reducing the opportunity gap between rural and urban India: by broadening economic opportunities to semi-urban and semi-rural areas:
  • This could ensure creation and development of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities that can provide opportunities and employment.
  • Would also ensure there is decluttering of the highly-dense urban area and improve quality of life.
• Leverage technology: to boost opportunities in semi-urban and semi-rural areas.
  • Proliferation of jobs: Through gig economy and digital start-ups that can scale up their services to large sections of the rural population.
  • Presence of broadband technology: Benefited many entrepreneurs who have ventured into rural areas during the pandemic times.
  • Direct bank transfer, DBT initiatives: On how people’s lives can benefit through efficient use of technology.
• Sustainable living beyond urban realms: Could be a catalyst for diversifying economic opportunities.
  • As people move away from cities into cleaner and more spacious semi-rural areas, it opens up a great opportunity for creating sustainable ventures.

Conclusion: As India moves towards being an emerging power, it would be wise to spread opportunities across more semi-rural and semi-urban areas rather than have the economic universe clustered around urban areas alone.