Mospi survey to gauge if migration has improved income, living standards

First migration survey in 17 years to assess how moving has changed lives - from income and housing to education, health, and stability; draft open for public feedback till November 30

In a first of its kind survey on migration in nearly two decades, India's official statistical machinery is looking to gauge whether the mobility has led to an improvement in the lives of its citizens or are they mulling to move back to their previous residence.

 

The survey by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation will probe whether migration led to a change in income for a migrant or did it result in improvement with respect to housing, education, healthcare, basic amenities or savings. Moreover, it will also find if the migration resulted in improved peace and stability for the migrants.

 

These are some of the new queries that the National Statistics Office (NSO) will undertake in the proposed migration survey for the period July 2026- June 2027, according to a draft schedule released by the statistics ministry on Thursday.

 

This assumes significance in the wake of increased mobility due to rapid socio-economic change in recent years. Being conducted for the first time since July 2007- June 2008, the upcoming survey on migration aims to measure the extent and reasons for migration, short-term migration, and other related characteristics of households and individuals across the country.

 

The draft schedule for the survey on migration is open for public feedback till November 30.

 

Besides, the survey will also examine whether migrants are facing any problem in their latest place of residence, and whether the problems being faced are of social, economical, political or cultural in nature.

 

The survey will also examine whether the migrant wants to move out from the present place of enumeration to go back to the last place of residence or go to any other place.

 

Though population census provides the most comprehensive information on migration characteristics for the entire population, the NSO has been conducting periodic sample surveys on migration since the 9th round in 1955. NSO has previously conducted dedicated migration surveys in the 18th (1963–64) and 64th round (2007–08), collecting detailed information on various aspects of migration.

 

More recently, data on migration was collected through the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2020–21 and the Multiple Indicator Survey (2020–21).

 

Apart from the above changes, the draft schedule for the latest survey also posits changing the reference period for defining short-term migration  to ‘15 days or more but less than 6 months’ from ‘1 month or more but less than 6 months’ at present to capture a larger share of short-term migration undertaken for employment purposes.

 

Also, the draft schedule proposes to not collect information on household migration due to ‘very low incidence’ of household migration recorded in the previous 64th round, as it had  recorded nearly 1 per cent household migration in rural areas and only 3 per cent in urban areas.

 

Household migration refers to the movement of an entire household from one place to another, either in one go or in a phased manner, instead of only the member(s) of the household. 

1st such survey since FY08

• The survey will probe whether migration led to a change in income or improvement with respect to housing, education, healthcare, basic amenities or savings
• It aims to measure the extent and reasons for migration, short-term migration, and other related characteristics of households and individuals
• The survey will also examine whether migrants are facing problems in their place of residence and the nature of such problems — social, economical, political or cultural
• The draft schedule for the survey on migration is open for public feedback till November 30