Determinants of Youth Migration to Urban Areas in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Youth are considered as the pillars that provide support and strength to the country. India is said to be a land of youth and villages. This paper is an effort to analyze the socio-economic profile of rural youths of eastern Uttar Pradesh along with their Migration Status. The sample size of 160 rural youth was randomly selected for the study and data were collected through personal interview method during 2023. Multi stage random sampling technique was adopted for the study with the Descriptive research design. The study was conducted in Eastern part of Uttar Pradesh in the districts Chandauli, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, and Deoria. Two blocks were selected from each selected district. Therefore, total of eight blocks were considered for study. From each selected block, two villages were selected for the present research. Ultimately, Sixteen villages were selected. A total of 160 respondents were selected from 16 villages, 10 respondents from each village. To obtain the data from 160 respondents, 197 respondents were contacted for clear and satisfactory response as per specific objectives of the study. The study revealed that highest per centage (47.50 per cent) of respondents were from middle age rural youth category i.e. 18-24 years and maximum number of respondents (55.63 per cent) belonged to other backward caste with maximum numbers of respondents (49.37 per cent) were graduate level of education. Joint family along with Mixed housing pattern is more common as revealed from the study. Most (38.13 per cent) of the respondents had small land holding i.e. 1-2ha with (48.12 per cent) of respondents having income between Rs. 2,00,001-3,00,000 income per annum from agriculture while Study also reveals that maximum land are owned by parents. 66.25 per cent of the respondents have prior migration experience and the main reason behind migration was education.