Female Migration to Mega Cities of India

Kailash Chandra Das, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)
Arunanand Murmu, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The present paper tries to understand the pattern and trend of female migration to six mega cities of India: namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, which each have populations of more than five million. The study uses the census data at two periods of time, namely 1991 and 2001. It is found that most of the migrants to these six cities originate from relatively backward states of India. Marriage is still the most important factor of female migration in India but its importance as a cause of female migration declines over the periods. On the other hand, it is quite encouraging to find that the proportion of females migrating for work, employment and education is increasing over the period of time. The volume of female migration to all the six mega cities has also increased over the period of time.