Seasonal migration

Geography glossary

Also called: Circular migration · Topic: Population of India: Distribution, Density, Growth and Composition · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Seasonal migration is short-term movement for work, often 2-6 months a year. The worker then returns home. It is also called circular migration because the same people go and come back again and again. It usually happens in the farm off-season, when there is little work or income in the village. Workers go mainly from Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and eastern UP to brick kilns, farms, building sites and factories. Censuses and surveys miss many of these workers. That keeps them out of welfare schemes. The Economic Survey 2016-17 used railway passenger data to estimate about 9 million inter-state migrants a year.

Example

Every year after the kharif harvest, families from Bolangir and Nuapada districts in western Odisha leave home to work in brick kilns for several months. They come back before the next sowing season.

Don't confuse with

  • Permanent migration: here the migrant changes where they usually live, for example a woman moving after marriage. The Census records this well, but it often misses seasonal migrants.
  • Reverse migration of 2020: this was a one-time, forced return home during the COVID-19 lockdown, not a regular yearly cycle.

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