Seasonal migration and its characteristics: A micro level study in Hyderabad-Karnataka region

Abstract

Seasonal migration is one of the most commonly adopted livelihood strategies among the rural areas of the country especially from dry land areas during the time of crisis as well as the post harvesting season. Seasonal migration is only a movement of an economic activity of a person but not the permanent residence. This study examines the characteristics of and factors responsible for seasonal migration. It has adopted Henry Garret’s Ranking technique to find out the prominent factors influencing the seasonal migration from the study area. The primary data of the study has been collected from second largest arid region of the country. Detailed information has gathered from 200 migrants’ households. The findings indicate that the seasonal migration is widespread across the study area where majority of the migrants belong to the weaker section of the society. Most of migrants are not literates and fall in the working age population. The findings also indicate that rural to urban flows are in majority, family plays a prominent role as a decision unit and majority of the movement are taking place along with the family rather than individual. The study has not only tried to evaluate the factors responsible for seasonal migration from the point of view of alternate employment opportunity in distress conditions but also as the escaping strategy from further sliding into the distress conditions.