 "Recent migrants less likely to have moved for marriage")
Latest Census data show that a staggering 49 per cent of all migrants have relocated for the purpose of marriage. But this estimate at the aggregate level masks the changing nature of migration.
Disaggregated Census data show that of all the people who migrated, only 19 per cent of those whose duration of residence is less than a year, migrated for marriage, substantially lower than the 49 per cent estimate. Even within this category, there are sharp differences across rural and urban areas. Only 25 per cent of those migrants, whose last resided in rural areas, relocated for marriage, while for urban areas the comparable estimate is 16 per cent.
Among those migrants whose duration of residence lies between the last one to four years, a slightly higher proportion (37.5 per cent) are estimated to have relocated for marriage.
Interestingly, this percentage keeps increasing as one increases the duration of migration. This trend implies that people who had migrated earlier, those with a higher duration of residence, were more likely to have moved for marriage while those, with a lower duration, who have migrated recently are less likely to have moved for marriage and more likely to have moved either because of their family or for work/employment.
As the data shows, of all those whose duration is less than a year, 16 per cent migrated for work/employment, substantially higher than the 10 per cent estimate, when all migrants are taken into consideration. This number declines to 11.5 per cent when all those who migrated in the last one to four years was taken into consideration – affirming the trend.
At the aggregate level too, there are sharp differences across rural and urban areas. While 60 per cent of those who have migrated from rural areas (to both rural and urban areas) have migrated for the purpose of marriage, for those who migrated from urban areas, the figure is much lower at 27 per cent. 24 per cent have moved with their family, 18 per cent moved immediately after birth, while another 14 per cent of them have moved for work.