Rural Out-migration during India’s liberalization and urbanization era: A case study of male contractual construction workers from Rural Uttar Dinajpur to big cities

Migration and urbanization has a very close relation, this relation has an unidirectional effect. Increase in urbanization which encompasses urban development provides several opportunities to the people of its surrounding areas. Employment opportunities both in formal and informal sectors in the cities attract labour from distant places and thus encourage migration. Migration of well-off, migration of distress in search of livelihood, or migration of marriage/ re-union with husband or migration solely in search of work in the cities are some popular flows which directly as well as indirectly linked to urbanization.
After 1991, India strongly adopted liberalization policies, alone with the opening of international trade and investment, deregulation, initiation of privatization, tax reforms and inflation-controlling measures etc several urban development projects are also carried out. The central focus of the ruling Government is to increase the economic growth and rate of urbanization (40 percent by 2021), make urban areas a growth pole, thus to make it more efficient, several quality infrastructural services and proper city development projects are planned. Consequently under the ministry of urban development JNNURM was introduced on 3rd Dec. 2005, which aims to improve life and infrastructure in some selected large cities .