Why people move — within India and beyond it — and what it means for the places they leave and arrive.
India has one of the world's largest internal migrant populations, driven mainly by rural-to-urban migration in search of employment. The Census of India and periodic labour force surveys track migration by reason (employment, marriage, education, family movement) — marriage remains the single largest reason for female migration, while employment dominates male migration patterns.
The COVID-19 lockdown (2020) starkly exposed the vulnerability of India's informal, inter-state migrant workforce, triggering a mass reverse migration crisis as millions of workers walked or travelled home after losing urban livelihoods overnight — prompting policy responses like the "One Nation, One Ration Card" scheme to ensure portability of food security benefits across states.
India has one of the world's largest diasporas, and is consistently the world's largest recipient of remittances. Labour migration to the Gulf countries forms a major share of India's international out-migration, raising distinct policy concerns around worker welfare, recruitment malpractice, and consular protection — addressed partly through the e-Migrate system for regulating overseas recruitment.
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