IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/inddev/v10y2016i1p27-48.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labour Migration to the Construction Sector in India and its Impact on Rural Poverty

Author

Listed:
  • Ravi Srivastava
  • Rajib Sutradhar

Abstract

The present article studies the impact of migration to the construction sector on rural poverty in India based on field survey. The survey has been carried out in two phases, the first phase involving the survey of construction workers in National Capital Region and the second phase comparing the well-being of migrant households with non migrant households in selected source villages. The study finds that at destination, workers have poor living and working conditions, lack citizenship rights, entitlements and voice. However, at the cost of hardship, low consumption levels, and possibly a smaller working life span, they manage to save a good portion of their income which they remit or take back home. At origin, migrant households report higher expenditure on consumption, residential housing, and children’s education, as well as some other assets. These differences are a result of higher employment and wage incomes among migrants. However, we were not able to control for differences in initial conditions, and life cycle and other issues, which influence both participation in migration, as well as long-term impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Ravi Srivastava & Rajib Sutradhar, 2016. "Labour Migration to the Construction Sector in India and its Impact on Rural Poverty," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(1), pages 27-48, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:inddev:v:10:y:2016:i:1:p:27-48
    DOI: 10.1177/0973703016648028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973703016648028
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0973703016648028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Mosse & Sanjeev Gupta & Mona Mehta & Vidya Shah & Julia fnms Rees & KRIBP Project Team, 2002. "Brokered livelihoods: Debt, Labour Migration and Development in Tribal Western India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(5), pages 59-88.
    2. Ben Rogaly & Daniel Coppard & Abdur Safique & Kumar Rana & Amrita Sengupta & Jhuma Biswas, 2002. "Seasonal Migration and Welfare/Illfare in Eastern India: A Social Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(5), pages 89-114.
    3. Kundu, Amitabh, 2009. "Urbanisation and Migration: An Analysis of Trends, Patterns and Policies in Asia," MPRA Paper 19197, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leena Bhattacharya, 2019. "Short-Term Migration and Children’s School Attendance: Evidence from Rural India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(4), pages 659-691, December.
    2. Md. Selim Reja, 2022. "Out-Migration of Muslim Youth from Rural West Bengal to Other States in India: Reasons and Role of Social Networks," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(4), pages 1137-1154, December.
    3. Zovanga L Kone & Maggie Y Liu & Aaditya Mattoo & Caglar Ozden & Siddharth Sharma, 2018. "Internal borders and migration in India," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 729-759.
    4. Deepak K. Mishra, 2020. "Seasonal Migration and Unfree Labour in Globalising India: Insights from Field Surveys in Odisha," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 1087-1106, December.
    5. Sudipta Sarkar, 2021. "Indian Construction Industry: Employment Conditions of Migrant Male Workers of Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(2), pages 461-484, June.
    6. S. Irudaya Rajan & P. Sivakumar & Aditya Srinivasan, 2020. "The COVID-19 Pandemic and Internal Labour Migration in India: A ‘Crisis of Mobility’," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 63(4), pages 1021-1039, December.
    7. Bhan, Tanushree & Patel, Amit, 2023. "Migration and health: Exploring the effect of destinations on the health outcomes among rural-urban migrants in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    8. Puja Krishna & Aditya Raj, 2022. "Health Condition of Internal Migrants in India: A Review," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 16(1), pages 169-179, April.
    9. Ravi Srivastava, 2019. "Emerging Dynamics of Labour Market Inequality in India: Migration, Informality, Segmentation and Social Discrimination," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(2), pages 147-171, June.
    10. Margubur Rahaman & Avijit Roy & Pradip Chouhan & Kailash Chandra Das & Md Juel Rana, 2021. "Risk of COVID-19 Transmission and Livelihood Challenges of Stranded Migrant Labourers during Lockdown in India," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(3), pages 787-802, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emily Rains, 2018. "Urbanization and India’s Slum Continuum: Evidence on the Range of Policy Needs and Scope of Mobility," Working Papers id:12633, eSocialSciences.
    2. Priya Deshingkar & Shaheen Akter, 2009. "Migration and Human Development in India," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-13, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Apr 2009.
    3. Kijima, Yoko, 2006. "Caste and Tribe Inequality: Evidence from India, 1983-1999," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 369-404, January.
    4. Rajarshi Majumder & Farhat Naaz, 2016. "Workers on the move: Migrated labour in India in early 21st century," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(3), pages 419-440, September.
    5. Leela Visaria & Harish Joshi, 2021. "Seasonal sugarcane harvesters of Gujarat: trapped in a cycle of poverty," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 23(1), pages 113-130, June.
    6. Nicholas Awuse & Patrick Tandoh-Offin, 2014. "Empirical Analysis of Internal Migration Influence on Development in Ghana From 1990 to 2012," Journal of Social Science Studies, Macrothink Institute, vol. 1(2), pages 1-12, July.
    7. Levien, Michael, 2015. "Social Capital as Obstacle to Development: Brokering Land, Norms, and Trust in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 77-92.
    8. Abu S. Shonchoy, 2015. "Seasonal Migration and Microcredit During Agricultural Lean Seasons: Evidence from Northwest Bangladesh," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(1), pages 1-26, March.
    9. Smriti Rao & Kade Finnoff, 2015. "Marriage Migration and Inequality in India, 1983–2008," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(3), pages 485-505, September.
    10. Smriti Rao & Smita Ramnarain, 2023. "Gender, Social Protection, and Crises of Social Reproduction: Contextualizing NREGA," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(1), pages 70-92, March.
    11. Mazzucato, Valentina & Cebotari, Victor & Veale, Angela & White, Allen & Grassi, Marzia & Vivet, Jeanne, 2015. "International parental migration and the psychological well-being of children in Ghana, Nigeria, and Angola," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 215-224.
    12. Tesfatsion Dominiko, 2016. "A Qualitative Study on Internal Migrants in Ethiopia: Causes, Experiences, Perceptions, Challenges and Future Life Orientations," Journal of Social Economics, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 3(2), pages 54-72.
    13. Thomas Chambers & Ayesha Ansari, 2018. "Ghar Mein KÄ m Hai (There is Work in the House)," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 13(2), pages 141-163, August.
    14. Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2018. "Costs and Benefits of Seasonal Migration : Evidence from India," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1161, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    15. Sinha, Shreya & Narain, Nivedita & Bhanjdeo, Arundhita, 2022. "Building back better? Resilience as wellbeing for rural migrant households in Bihar, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    16. John Walsh, 2010. "Thai Khem Kaeng: An inadequate response by the Thai State to the impact of the 2008 economic crisis," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 1(1), pages 1-8.
    17. Lall, Somik V. & Selod, Harris & Shalizi, Zmarak, 2006. "Rural-urban migration in developing countries : a survey of theoretical predictions and empirical findings," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3915, The World Bank.
    18. Khera, Reetika, 2014. "Cash vs. in-kind transfers: Indian data meets theory," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 116-128.
    19. Imbert, Clément & Papp, John, 2020. "Costs and benefits of rural-urban migration: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    20. Chandan K. Samal, 2006. "Remittances and sustainable livelihoods in semi-arid areas," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 13(2), pages 73-92, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:inddev:v:10:y:2016:i:1:p:27-48. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.