The interim report of the Village Development and Migration Commission constituted by the Trivendra Singh Rawat Government has presented a very worrying picture of migration from the villages of mountainous areas of the State.
The report of the commission released by the Chief Minister Rawat and vice -chairman of the commission, S S Negi mentions that in the past ten years alone, 734 villages of the State have become depopulated dubbed here as ‘ghost’ villages. Apart from them, there are 565 such villages whose population has dwindled by 50 percent over the past ten years.
Importantly, the census of 2011 listed 1048 villages of the State as ‘ghost’ villages, something which suggests that the pace of migration from the hills is still very high despite of the developmental activities being undertaken by the successive Governments to arrest the exodus.
Addressing newsmen at CM residence on Saturday, Negi said that in last ten years alone 383726 persons from 3668 villages have migrated albeit temporarily. “They regularly come back to their villages,” he said. He added that in last ten years, 118981 persons have permanently migrated from the villages of Uttarakhand.
The deputy chairman of the commission further said that a comprehensive State level survey was conducted by the commission to asses different aspects of migration and causes in 7950 village Panchayats and 16500 Toks( small habitations). “The report has listed lack of employment opportunities as the biggest cause of migration as 50.16 percent of the migrated population informed that they were forced to migrate in search of livelihood.
The report suggests that 15.21 percent left their homes due to lack of educational facilities while 8.83 percent termed lack of health facility as cause of their migration. In what suggests failure of successive State Governments in strengthening infrastructure and providing facilities in the rural areas of hills, the report mentions that only 28.72 percent and 0.96 percent people have migrated to other States and outside the country respectively and the majority of the migration has occurred to nearby towns, district headquarters and other districts within the State.
Giving micro details about age group of the migrating population, Negi said that maximum migration tendency is noticed among youth of the age group 26 to 35 years as they account for close to 42 percent of total migrant population.
Amid fears of detrimental effect of migration from the villages situated on the International boundary on the national security, the report mentions that 14 villages situated within five kilometres of international boundary have turned ‘ghost’ villages over the past ten years.