Rural to urban migration has the following impacts.
(A) Increases hardship in rural areas because of limited cash income.
(B) Lack of access to common resources because of private property.
(C) Old people are left in villages.
(D) New industries are set up in the villages.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (A), (B), (C) only
(A) Increases hardship in rural areas because of limited cash income. Correct. As people lose free access to fuel, fodder and food and have to buy them, their hardship grows, and it is worsened by the fact that opportunities for earning cash income are limited in the villages. This drives the flow of rural-to-urban migration.
(B) Lack of access to common resources because of private property. Correct. Common property resources like ponds, forests and grazing lands once let the poor survive in the villages. Now these resources have been turned into private property, or they are exhausted, and this decline has accelerated rural-to-urban migration.
(C) Old people are left in villages. Correct. As a livelihood strategy, men migrate out in search of work, while women and children are often left behind in their villages with elderly grandparents.
(D) New industries are set up in the villages. Incorrect. People move to the city because there is not enough work in the villages; the town acts as a magnet for those who cannot find work in rural areas. Migration takes workers away from the village and does not bring industries to it.
NCERT (2025-26): “2.6 Rural-Urban Differences … Considered from an urban point of view, the rapid growth in urbanisation shows that the town or city has been acting as a magnet for the rural population. Those who cannot find work (or sufficient work) in the rural areas go to the city in search of work. This flow of rural-to-urban migration has also been accelerated by the continuous decline of common property resources like ponds, forests and grazing lands. These common resources enabled poor people to survive in the villages although they owned little or no land. Now, these resources have been turned into private property, or they are exhausted (Ponds may run dry or no longer provide enough fish; forests may have been cut down and have vanished…). If people no longer have access to these resources, but on the other hand have to buy many things in the market that they used to get free (like fuel, fodder or supplementary food items), then their hardship increases. This hardship is worsened by the fact that opportunities for earning cash income are limited in the villages.…” “…As a livelihood strategy, men migrate out periodically in search of work and better wages, while women and children are often left behind in their villages with elderly grandparents.…” |