ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 presents key characteristics of outmigration from rural Bihar: the incidence and duration of migration and the individual and household characteristics of this migration, such as class, caste, landownership, age, sex, education status, primary work, and occupation status. The chapter finds that nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of households in rural Bihar have migrant member(s) and 18.8 per cent of sample individuals—that is, nearly one in five persons—in rural Bihar is a migrant. Migration streams are highly masculinised, and for men, migration is a pathway out of agriculture, allowing them to access a diversified occupational profile in distant urban labour markets in India. Women, on the other hand, remain largely confined to agricultural activities in the village. The chapter discusses the role of commuting in—work and migration from—rural Bihar, and then provides snapshots of Bihari migrant workers’ lives in destination areas, focusing on details of migrant workers’ location, reasons for their migration, working conditions, and employment, incomes, and remittances. It presents migrants’ housing, access to basic facilities such as sanitation and electricity, and migrants’ identity documents in destination and source regions. Finally, the chapter explores perceptions about migration and discusses some aspects of return migration.
