Trends in Bangladesh\\\'s population movement

Bangladesh population has grown from 44.1 million in 1951 to 160 million by now - 2014. The inter-census growth between 1991 and 2001 was 1.48 per cent against 2.18 per cent between 1981 and 1991. Occupying only about 0.03 per cent of the world's land surface, Bangladesh at the present is 8th most populous rural country in the globe. Based on the current rate of growth of population, the country's population is expected to reach 190 million in 2025. During the period between 1941 and 2001 the rural population in Bangladesh doubled, and urban population increased fifteenfold.
Migration is one of the vital forces that contribute to fast urbanization generally associated with higher levels of efficiency and expansion. Migration is a root and outcome of socio-economic alteration in the country. It is considered a behavioural attribute that reflects the dedication of the people of origin and destination to reach. Rural-urban migration currently becomes a common fact and the situation is not in control. People migrate to urban areas because they are attracted by livelihood opportunities. The migrated population can find diversified livelihood opportunities with various incomes in the towns and cities. Thus, the poor rural population considers migration a livelihood coping strategy. Their condition in city does not match with their expectation. They are still doing very hard work and suffering a lot. Life is very tough here but yet they do not want to go back to their origin until a better opportunity and condition prevails there than city life.
However, though they are in definitely a lower income range in perspective of living cost of cities, yet 70 per cent of people agreed that they have a higher income than before migration income. Some 20 per cent of people have no change in income and 10 per cent had a better income before migration. The migrants are engaged in diversified professions but most of them are engaged mainly as garments worker, rickshaw and curt puller and grocery shopkeeper. The average income of the migrants is from Tk 6000/- to Tk10000/- per month. Majority have improved their present situation compared to their past, besides that about 80 per cent migrants remit money to their village by contributing to their family expenses or buy assets in their origin. Though the migrated people earn a little money, yet they have to remit money to their village for their dependants. They transfer money to village for their family to meet their daily expenses and to pay their due loan in some cases. Sometimes they purchase land in village with their savings. They agree to go back to their villages if they get any better opportunity of income and can live a better life.
Internal migration is a key factor in influencing the regional distribution of the country's population and, in particular, a contributor to the process of urbanization with all its economic and social consequences, gathering data on internal migration becomes important for enabling formulation of appropriate policies for the redistribution of population away from urban to rural locations. In Bangladesh the main internal migration flows are from rural to urban areas although other forms of migration such as urban to rural, rural to rural or urban to urban, are not uncommon. However, the 1991 census data on internal migration by direction shows that the highest rate of internal migration is of the rural to urban type - 51.8 per thousand - as against the urban to rural migration rate of 1.1, rural to rural 3.4, and the urban to urban migration rate of 4.4 per thousand.
It has been observed that most of the migrants are between age group 16-30 where males are greater in number than females; within males young males are playing a dominating role. The migrants usually come from various parts of the country, but maximum are coming from northern part of the country and staying here for 6 to 15 years. They are usually married in large numbers having primary or less than primary level education. Available information on the inflow of migrants to the capital city, Dhaka, from other districts of the country during the 1980s shows that the highest percentage of migrants came from Barisal - 20.3 per cent - followed by Dhaka district with 19.5 per cent, Faridpur with 17.4 per cent and Comilla with 15.5 per cent.
The process of migration was influenced by both pull and push factors, of which the predominant pull factor was the expectation of getting employment and earning higher income, and the principal push factor was the situation of poverty engendered by natural disaster, landlessness, and lack of jobs. Many of the studies show that push factors are playing a more dominating role than pull factors in rural-urban migration. Around 65 per cent people are migrating due to push factors at the same time 35 per cent people are responsible for pull factors. It is the economic opportunity that played a dominant role in migration decision. Some studies show that 76 per cent rural-urban migration occurred from economic factors where only 24 per cent is responsible as social factors. Sometimes political factors are responsible for migration. Political harassment, threatening, police cases or cases for property etc are another type of cause of migration. Though a fewer number of people migrate for such reason, yet village politics is growing rapidly and migration for political reasons is also increasing. Moreover, urban areas usually have good utility services like electricity, supplied water and gas etc as well as better amenities like parks, cinema halls etc which attract rural based people and they want to live permanently in the urban area.
Furthermore, three categories of factors are perceived important causes for rural-urban migration. About 93.3 per cent are related to the need for education and about 72.2 per cent for acquisition of skills in various vocations. The second higher reasons are related to the absence of satisfactory job opportunities in rural areas. These include about 71.1 per cent for the scarcity of employment, 68.9 per cent for the absence of industries and companies and 74.4 per cent out of boredom in agriculture. The third higher 62.2 percentage of factors is about social, such as inadequate amenities and 68.9 per cent for expulsion from rural areas due to an offence or crime committed by the migrant. The first two sets of factors are common in rural-urban migration literature as factors responsible for the movement of migrants. Among the social factors, only inadequate social amenities have influenced most in rural-urban migration according to the rural people.
As a consequence of the phenomenal increase in the number and rate of growth of urban population, caused largely by unchecked migration, the number of slums and slum dwellers is rapidly increasing in the country. In the city area, the poor migrants prefer slums for their initial settlement, obviously because of their poverty and low income. In 1991, there were about 2000 slums in Dhaka city alone. At the present rate of urbanization, the slum population will in all probability increase further, with all its undesirable economic, social, demographic and public health hazards that are putting the overall development efforts of the country in jeopardy.
Obviously, most of the rural population has chosen not to migrate. It is because many were heads of the households - mostly women - who had the ultimate responsibility for the management of the household. There are others who have social obligation such as taking care of old parents and young children while others like the village lay priests, astrologers and communal leaders remain to fulfil communal obligations. Fewer still because of sentimental attachment to their ancestral properties and to uphold village traditions. Some remain for fear that absence from the household would negate their chances of inheritance. Some could not migrate due to lack of basic education, inexperience in non-farm jobs, or the lack of capital to start a business. Others would not like to leave their land fallow and that the present agriculture practice is reliable, secure and economically viable. Further, they could also earn cash income through sale of surplus farm produce.
Whatever its causes are, the increasing urbanization, especially centring larger/mega cities, has generated a wide variety of problems in terms of providing employment, shelter and basic services to the urban population which have become an important policy concern for the Government. The problems generated by urbanization are those of unemployment, crime, housing, sanitation, environmental hazards, etc., which are the prominent features of urban life in Bangladesh today, and which have been contributing to the growing urban poverty. Formulation of an explicit policy on urbanization along with appropriate interventions for initiating a process of reverse migration whereby the migrant slum dwellers can be induced to return to their original rural locations therefore warrant immediate concerted action.
The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre.
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