Mumbai, Uttarakhand, Kashmir and now Chennai. Rampant urbanisation and unceasing waves of mass migration are putting enormous pressure on already creaking civic infrastructure in urban agglomerates. Ignoring this dangerous trendily is being done at our own peril. Images from the flooding and its trauma and devastation remain embedded in our memory recesses, but we prefer to lurch from one crisis to another. Water bodies are being destroyed, forest denuded and water tables are lowering with the passage of each day. The daily rural to urban migration has been a continuous process, but its real birthing took place around the same time as the unfettering of the Indian economy. You don't need to be induced with truth serum to understand the deleterious impact of this internal migration. Population mobility of unskilled and semi skilled labour is making life that much more difficult for urban centres which are decaying rapidly. Not only does capital chase economic development, but migration too chases economic development and social upliftment and transformation.

The trend of civilisations is inexorably upward with no halts or half measures.

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A Princeton paper reveals that a steady increase in internal migration has been witnessed in the post reform era from 24.8 percent in 1993 to 28.5 percent in 2007/08. The same study across the gender divide shows a decline in male migration which is explained as, "One possibility for decline in male migration could be due to employment generated through National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in village level itself reduces rural to rural flow which in turn influence overall rural male migration. On the other hand studies shows that there occurs fall in rural employment in spite of implementation of NREGA. Therefore, another reason for deceleration in male migration can be explained in terms of the jobless growth of Indian economy. 

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The moot point here being that urban renewal needs to become the single biggest priority for any government in India as it battles decay and dilapidation of an enormous magnitude. China was alive to this infrastructural challenge long before anyone else and it built relentlessly. India is way behind the eight ball in this regard. It needs a trillion dollars and more to beef up its sagging infrastructure. About 35 per cent of India’s urban population is constituted of migrants according to latest NSS Survey 2007–08. Migration to urban areas is, therefore, not only the product of opportunities and constraints in the urban centres but is also influenced by alternative forms of spatial mobility emanating from urban transition. Bhagat highlights that in absolute terms, net rural to urban migration has risen from about 11 million during 1981–1991 to 14 million during 1991–2001 and to about 19 million during 2001–2011 at the all-India level. In the past, rural to urban migration was largely directed to big cities and to a few small cities and towns where large scale industries had developed. This trend continues but migrants are now moving to the peripheries of metropolises and large cities which are often devoid of basic services and have largely grown in an unplanned manner.

This remains the biggest challenge for urban policy planners as urban sprawls grow in an uncontrolled and unplanned manner. Agriculture is no longer a means for subsistence for rural families and as the children grow up and refuse to take up farming for a livelihood, the pressure mounts on urban areas. Then there is the small matter of agricultural land itself being sold for pickles and dimes to property developers. The very basis of a farm economy is being systematically dismantled by these measures and this is wreaking havoc on the structure of our economic edifice. Running away from the reality of an agrarian economy without setting up an adequate manufacturing base or skilling of the migratory labour is adding to our woes.