Seasonal Migration and Livelihood of Marginalised Communities-A Case Study in Boudh District of Odisha

The study has understood the socio-economic status of the migrants in the Boudh District of Odisha. It has examined the determinants of seasonal migration in the study area and also explored suggestive measures to check migration. The primary data were collected from the seasonal migrants who have migrated for six months i.e. from January to June 2017. One hundred seasonal migrants were taken as samples from four villages of Harabhanga Gram Panchayat of Boudh district. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample. Among the hundred migrants in the sample, there were thirty-two respondents who migrated within the state and sixty-eight respondents migrated outside the state. Most of the people were going for migration because of poverty and misery. Unemployment, indebtedness, declining agricultural productivity and crop loss were found to be the major push factors propelling many people for migration. Similarly, better employment opportunity in the urban area, relative easiness in getting gainful employment, higher wages in comparison to the rural area were the pull factors for migration observed by this study. Although liberation from indebtedness, the rise in consumption and saving, skill development and asset accumulation in the short period are the positive outcomes of migration, separation from family, inattention to children's education, health hazards, psychological stress and exposure to substances are some of the grey areas which merit reasonable attention of all stakeholders.