Uttarakhand since its formation in 2000 has witnessed encouraging economic growth. But this growth has largely been confined to 3 plain districts, with the hill districts lagging far behind. With economic activities centred in plain areas there are visible income inequalities between the plain and hill districts. Due to these disparities, the pace of outmigration has quickened. This is reflected in the population census of 2011. Not only does it indicate slow growth of population in most of the hill districts but an absolute decline in the population of Almora and Pauri Garhwal districts in the period 2001 - 2011.
The population census also shows a substantial increase in urban population during the same period. Importantly while population in hill districts predominantly resides in rural areas, in the 3 plain districts, over 40% of the population lives in urban areas, which have emerged as predominant centres of economic activity, attracting migrants from the hill region. The scale of migration can be judged by the fact that were 350 villages representing 2.75% of total villages have been almost abandoned. There have been several articles in the media about these “ghost villages “.
Most of the migrants are young educated males usually belonging to upper and other backward castes. The percentage of SC migrants is proportionally less. This is mainly due to weak social networks of SCs at their place of destination. However, their proportion is steadily increasing with the economic situation deteriorating in hill region. Most of the out migrants have salaried, government jobs but a sizeable percentage are students and domestic workers, with women usually engaged in domestic jobs. The migrants have better educational qualification as compared to their non-migrant counterparts. It has also been seen that whenever outmigration has taken place in tire households have moved out. Such tendency is however confined to upper caste groups as SC households are handicapped by low incomes. What are the drivers of migration and what has been its socio-economic impact on Uttarakhand’s hill districts. A key factor has been the topography. In Himalayas, the mountainous terrain, steep slopes and unpredictable climate impose severe restrictions on agricultural productivity. As a result, subsistence farming constitutes the main source of food and livelihood for more than 75% of population, even though the availability of arable land is considerably low. Since availability of arable land is limited, the size of land holdings are also very small, much less than is necessary for practising agriculture on a sustainable basis in the Himalayas. Consequently, not only agricultural productivity and livelihood options in traditional sectors are declining, there are lack of alternatives, partly due to ecological constraints and partly because of inappropriate and ineffective development model. Due to poor agricultural productivity the region faces an annual food deficit of 65% (as per estimates), affecting more than 70% of population comprising mainly poor households. The subsistence economy with its low productivity is just not in a position to absorb the adverse impact contributing to accelerated rural out migration. Economic globalisation has further increased the vulnerability of mountain communities to environmental risks through exploitation of natural resources even in remote and comparatively inaccessible areas. Moreover, changing climate conditions have stressed the Himalayan ecosystem. Higher mean annual temperature and melting of glaciers and snow, altered precipitation patterns and frequent extreme weather events have further strengthened the trend of outmigration from rural hill districts to the plains. Climate change has also adversely impacted on hydrological systems and reduced the availability of drinking water and affected crop production. Increasing crop failures, flash floods, landslides are affecting the rural economy and increasing the vulnerability of mountain communities, further contributing to food and livelihood insecurity. While urbanisation of less accessible areas mainly due to the better road connectivity, infrastructural projects, development of tourist sites and gradual shift from primary resource development to secondary and tertiary sector has prompted some migration from rural areas in the hills to the urban areas, it has not been significant. By and large economic growth in Uttarakhand continues to be concentrated in the foothill region constituted by Dehradoon, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts of the state. The hill region could not join the mainstream even after the formation of Uttarakhand further accelerating the process of migration to the plains.
The socio-economic and environmental impact of the steady outmigration has been substantial. Abandoned villages have already been mentioned. The number of such villages has reportedly risen after the Uttarakhand floods of 2013.
There has also been loss of almost 11% of prime agricultural land between 2001 and 2015. Unlike urban areas, where the loss of urban land is due to process of urbanisation and industrialisation, in the hills it is largely due to out-migration and resultant abandonment of agricultural land.
The exodus of human resources has had a negative impact on the quality of rural life. A noticeable fallout has been the ‘feminisation’ of agriculture due to outflow of male youth to the plains. This has increased strain on women, who not only collect fuel wood and fodder from shrinking forests but also fetch water from increasingly long distances. This is in addition to taking care of agriculture, livelihood, children and aged family members. The onerous nature of their duties has led to health issues and further affected agricultural productivity. On the positive side, male out-migration has provided some stability to rural economies in terms of remittances, marginally improved access to education, health and empowerment of rural women.
To sum up, in appropriate development policies and programmes, constraints of livelihood, poverty, rapid urbanisation and climate change, food shortages and consequent insecurity have hastened the process of outmigration in Uttarakhand hill districts. The trend has further intensified after the creation of Uttarakhand. The situation calls for looking beyond the traditional subsistence based agricultural system and generation of rural employment opportunities in off from and non-traditional sectors like village-based eco-tourism. There is also need for restoration of the ecosystem through sustainable utilisation and conservation of critical natural resources, particularly land, water, forests and biodiversity. Evolution of effective climate change adaptation and disaster reduction strategies and weaving them into an effective development model is obviously the need of the hour. But the experience so far has been at best patchy, despite interventions by the state through projects like Swarna Jayanti Swarojgar Yojna and State Rural Livelihood Mission for creating self employment opportunities. These initiatives have not been widespread and failed to make a significant impact on economic levels of rural households. Targeted programmes have neither been able to raise the position of agricultural and horticulture development to the desired levels, nor is there any evidence of use of better farming practices in crop production, horticulture, poultry, dairy and fish production. This is mainly due to lack of agricultural extension services available in villages to improve their farm practices and productivity.
The New Industrial Policy of the State has also failed to attract capital to the backward hill districts. Banking sector too has preferred to finance only developed districts and is averse to taking risks in the hill region. This in turn is widening the income gap between the urban areas and the hill districts. With improving educational levels, expansion of communication networks, better electricity and cheaper land there is scope for developing knowledge based IT services in these areas.
There are of course encouraging examples of good work done by some government agencies, bilateral donors and NGOs as also studies indicating scope for income generating opportunities in different sectors with the involvement of local communities. It is time that programmative interventions support the higher growth initiatives in the hill regions of Uttarakhand, which have yet to witness a significant improvement in employment and income generation opportunities for their population.
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