MAINS DAILY QUESTIONS & MODEL ANSWERS
Q1. Look into the national elements affecting domestic migration. Also, talk about its numerous economical effects.
Paper & Topic: GS II – Population-related issues
- People travel from one geographical unit to another when they migrate, changing their domicile from their place of origin or departure to their point of arrival. Migration is a sort of spatial or geographical mobility. People who migrate internally are those who do so within the boundaries of their own country. According to the census, there were 450 million internal migrants in India in 2011.
Examples of internal migration reasons include the following:
- The primary force behind voluntary migration is economic considerations. Low agricultural income, agricultural unemployment, and agricultural underemployment are the main drivers of migration to areas with higher employment opportunities. Economic forces can be further divided into two groups.
- Push factors: The decline of institutions like the jajmani system has had an impact on migration. In addition, the amount of land available for agriculture per person has decreased as a result of the population’s rapid rise, and the percentage of rural residents who are unemployed or underemployed has significantly increased. Residents of rural areas are consequently compelled to live in urban areas.
- Pull Factors: People may relocate in search of fresh career opportunities. For the harvest or to work as labourers in construction, Biharis may relocate to Delhi, West Bengal, or Uttar Pradesh. If there is an acceptable amount of social and physical infrastructure, such as industrial districts and Special Economic Zones (SEZs), businesses may relocate.
- Marriage is an important socio-cultural factor, particularly for females, when moving from one rural or metropolitan area to another. Family conflicts can occasionally lead to migration. Better alternatives for transport and communication, the results of an education that places an emphasis on cities, and the accompanying shift in viewpoints and values all support migration.
- Political factors: Political turmoil and interethnic violence can also contribute to internal migration. For instance, migration from other states has been impacted by the Sons of the Soil policy of the state governments.
- Environmental factors: Natural calamities and declining environmental conditions over time regularly cause people to relocate.
Effects of internal migration on the economy and society:
Positive outcomes:
- The local economy grows thanks to migrant workers’ money returned home. Due to the influx of rural migrants into cities and towns, there has been a steady flow of money from urban to rural areas in India.
- Because it encourages the use of labor-saving technologies and/or better levels of job engagement among the remaining family members, migration from a region where there is a labour surplus helps to enhance the average productivity of labour in that region.
- The green revolution in Punjab and Haryana was brought about by emigration from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
- Circular migration can help to lessen localism by bringing modern social values like gender equality, family planning, reason, objectivity, and women’s empowerment.
Negative outcomes:
- Overcrowding in India’s major cities is one of the main undesirable results of migration, which also has other negative implications. Consider the expansion of slums in urban regions.
- Rural areas’ underdevelopment is a result of a shortage of skilled labourers and a fragile local economy.
- Migration patterns are mediated by a complex web of contractors and middlemen. These networks are most prevalent in the underground economy. Migrants who rely solely on middlemen for information usually fall victim to exploitation with little to no recourse in the form of low-end, low-value, tough, and risky physical employment.
- As a result of migration, urban crime rates—including drug trafficking, human trafficking, crimes against women, and juvenile delinquency—have soared.
- More women in India are economically active in the agricultural industry, either as independent farmers or as wage workers, as a result of internal migration. As a result, agriculture has become more gendered.
- As a result of the internal migration process, a migrant has both new opportunities and challenges. The hazardous status of interstate migrants in India was made evident during COVID-19. The overall benefits of moving, however, cannot be disregarded. To address the problems, proactive policy actions are urgently needed. Putting in place immigration policies could be a good first step in the right path.
Q2. Moderate politicians criticised British control as being destructive and dictatorial, which cost the country its wealth. Examine the elements that, in this context, contributed to the wealth migration from India.
Paper & Topic: GS II – Modern Indian History
- Criticising the wealth drain rose to become the most popular sentiment in the anti-colonial nationalist narrative pushed by the moderate leaders. Since India did not obtain a substantial economic, commercial, or material return, Indian national leaders and economists have referred to the continued transfer of national resources from India to Britain as a “drain”. In his book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, Dadabhai Naoroji claimed that about one-fourth of the money gathered in India leaves the country and goes to increase England’s wealth.
The following are some of the reasons why riches left India:
- Home charges: This represents the sum that the Secretary of State spent while representing India in England. Prior to the Revolt of 1857, home charges were between 10% and 13%, but between 1897 and 1901, they increased to 24%. The following expenses were related to the home:
- Dividends are paid to East India Company shareholders.
- The nation’s debt was subject to higher interest rates increases in England.
- pensions associated with building railroads and irrigation systems.
- remuneration for the government agencies where Englishmen had positions.
- Expenses for the India office, included pensions for retired officials who had served in India or for India in England and retired there, as well as military pensions and their furlough allowances.
- Unrequited exports: The drain theory’s central tenet was the notion of “unrequited exports” that didn’t produce comparable returns. India has been steadily growing in size since 1850, and has a sizable export surplus—an excess of exports over imports—that was effectively “unrequited.” As a result, the country was less able to invest and save, which limited its potential to grow economically.
- Council bills: Purchasers of Indian commodities transferred the funds by exchanging “Council Bills” for pounds; they subsequently received rupees from India. This led to a decrease in wealth.
- Foreign banking: Services including shipping, insurance, and banking are expensive in India. These foreign corporations’ unauthorised activities not only destroyed Indian resources but also impeded the expansion of Indian companies in these areas.
- Interest on foreign investments: A significant portion of the country’s revenue was lost to interest and earnings from private foreign capital. In the last quarter of the 19th century, financial capital started to enter the Indian market as a result of the development of railways, the growth of trade, and the construction of plantations, mines, cotton and jute mills, among other things. Foreign investors took use of India’s resources for their own gain rather than assisting with its industrialization, and some even prevented native investors from growing their companies.
- Building this economic criticism of colonialism was significant politically and morally at that time in history. By linking Indian poverty to colonialism, this economic theory sought to call into question the morality of colonial rule and, perhaps implicitly, the concept of benevolent imperialism or British kindness as a whole. On top of this firm foundation, later nationalists launched powerful mass movements and agitations.
