How to ease migration pressure on India's cities

Hindustan Times

6 days ago

For some years now, Goa has been reeling under an influx of settlers who found Indian metros unlivable and now work in the gig economy or are retired. While this trend picked up post-2000, the trickle intensified into a flood after the pandemic, leading to a surge in the cost of living for locals including housing costs and other social and economic repercussions that are still being dealt with.
A similar reverse migration to Uttarakhand and, to a smaller extent, Himachal Pradesh was seen in the last decade, with the former seeing a bigger influx as land ownership rules there are more flexible than the latter. While these states are learning to live with this influx, the factors driving people out from cities remain unchanged: Despite the Smart Cities Mission, many of the metros and larger cities are reaching their breaking point.
Given that there are no quick-fix solutions to reducing the load on cities and ensuring that the steady trickle of exits doesn't turn into a flood, it might be a good idea for the government to actively look at ways to stem the migration of rural youth to cities in search of livelihood and employment.
On my trips to Kumaon, I have come across at least three initiatives on reducing migration from the hills to the cities. Since 2009, B2R, a rural BPO in Uttarakhand started by BITS-Pilani alumni, has led to remarkable changes in the social fabric of the region, with women employees marrying later and even choosing partners in societies that have traditionally frowned upon such progress. Although the journey has been far from smooth, with many ups and downs over the last 16 years, B2R now employs 600 locals at its five centres in the state, most of whom would have been leading wretched lives as migrants and urban poor in India's metros. While their pay packages may be a fraction of what their metro counterparts might earn, their standard of living is higher, with cleaner air and cooler temperatures a natural perk.
Another enterprise, Udhyam (set up in 2017), is helping curb migration by identifying new businesses and providing seed capital, working capital loans, and mentorship to the local youth who then set up the businesses they feel passionate about. Starting with a small cohort of 20-25, the enterprise has touched the lives of over 400 entrepreneurs over the last few years, with more than 200 of them active at any given point. The enterprise was set up to counter a few worrying trends: The number of educated but unemployed youth in the hills was rising, agriculture if practised was mostly for subsistence, and even as many were returning from the plains disillusioned, there were no industries or companies that could hire them. What then does a young, educated person do? Many were sitting idle and unhappy, leading to increased crime rates in the region.
An exemplary model in the Almora region is that of SOS Organics, a tiny natural cosmetics and health foods enterprise started by two former Osho followers with its ~25 female employees (only four are men), the primary breadwinners with minimal disruption to their traditional roles. Work shifts are six-and-a-half hours a day with an hour for lunch. All employees walk to work, are paid well above the average wage in the region with a starting salary of ₹9,000, and workers and their family members are fully medically insured. The space created by the founders is worth a visit, not just for its natural beauty but also for how little it demands from its surroundings in terms of resources. Rainwater is harvested, solar power generated, keeping the space off the public grid as far as possible. Almost all materials used in the workshop are locally sourced, eliminating even the pollution caused by trucks ferrying inputs.
At a more countrywide and macro-scale, there are at least three big operators — DesiCrew, RuralShores and iMerit Inc., all of whom are providing local employment and reducing migration.
While DesiCrew has a total of 1,480 employees and works with native language speakers from 15 states, iMerit Inc., with over 4,000 employees, is doing cutting edge IT using AI from remote locations for several Silicon Valley firms by employing a primarily female workforce — no mean accomplishment for a country with low female labour force participation rates.
So, the question to ask now is what precisely policymakers can do to support and help scale up such initiatives. Two low-hanging fruits stare policy makers in the face.
One is to outsource some of the poorly run government services to such rural companies, just the way passport issuance services were outsourced to TCS, resulting in a three-way win for the authorities, the citizens and the vendor. Two, provide incentives to encourage Indian corporates to outsource some of their back-end work to such outfits, thereby reducing costs and enhancing efficiency.
Perhaps a good start would be to set up a special task force or committee (the government's expertise) to look more keenly into this sector and come up with a more comprehensive policy to encourage demand. The idea — a National Policy for Rural BPOs — has been toyed with by past governments but is yet to see the light of day.
Anjuli Bhargava writes about governance, infrastructure and the social sector. The views expressed are personal.