In our country, the migration of rural people to towns and cities is increasing drastically. This is causing serious problems both in the rural as well as in the urban areas. In fact, things are becoming really unmanageable. Can you analyze this problem in detail and indicate not only the socio-economic but also the emotional and attitudinal factors responsible for this problem? Also, distinctly bring out why— (a) educated rural youth are trying to shift to urban areas; (b) landless poor people are migrating to urban slums; (c) even some farmers are selling off their land and trying to settle in urban areas taking up petty jobs. What feasible steps can you suggest which will be effective in controlling this serious problem of our country?

Nature of the problem

Large-scale distress migration from villages to cities strains rural areas (labour drain, ageing farms, family breakdown) and urban areas (slums, congestion, pressure on services). Beyond economics, it has powerful emotional and attitudinal roots.

Factors driving migration

• Socio-economic: agrarian distress, disguised unemployment, low farm incomes, scarce rural jobs, and better urban wages, education and healthcare.
• Emotional and attitudinal: aspiration for a "modern" urban lifestyle, loss of dignity in farming, the perception of agriculture as low-status, peer influence and disillusionment with village life.

Distinct drivers

• (a) Educated rural youth: a mismatch between their education and rural opportunities, aspiration and status-seeking, reluctance to do manual farm work, and the pull of urban careers and lifestyles.
• (b) Landless poor: sheer survival — absence of assets and rural work, indebtedness, and even slum life offering more wage-earning than the village.
• (c) Farmers selling land: unviable small holdings, crop failure and debt, poor returns, and a psychological loss of faith in the future of farming.

Feasible steps

• Make agriculture viable and dignified: irrigation, remunerative prices, FPOs, allied activities (dairy, horticulture) and crop insurance.
• Create rural non-farm employment through MGNREGA, rural enterprise and skilling.
• Strengthen rural infrastructure and services — schools, health, roads and digital access — so villages become livable.
• Drive attitudinal change by restoring the dignity of farming and showcasing successful agri-entrepreneurs.
• Promote planned growth of small towns to distribute opportunity and ease metro pressure.

Conclusion

Migration must be made a choice, not a compulsion. Addressing both the economic push and the emotional-attitudinal factors — restoring dignity and opportunity to rural life — is the durable solution.