ABSTRACT
This chapter extends the ongoing debate on rural labour migration in India in the context of neoliberal reforms and capitalist transition. While one line of argument is that the emerging trend in rural India is to leave village and agriculture, the other argument indicates that the intervention of government welfare measures launched in response to demands of democratic politics reverse this trend. Yet it is also argued that the labouring poor leave the village to work but keep coming back, leading to a pattern of circular migration. Based on available NSSO and census data on rural-rural, rural-urban, and urban-rural migration, this chapter examines the relevance of these three lines of arguments in the context of Maharashtra.
