Inclusive Migration in India: A Study on Domestic Migration and Issues in Electoral Participation

The study compiled information from academic papers, government and non-government reports on the subject of domestic migration, with a specific emphasis on their political inclusion. In order to conduct a comprehensive literature review, the study searched reference databases such as Google Scholar and EconLit, carefully looking through journals on migration studies, to ensure that key works on this subject were not missed out. The study also checked websites of international organizations such as The World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund and International Labour Organization. It also reviewed old ECI publications and constituent assembly debates to identify if there were any examples from history where special provisions were made for domestic migrants. In addition, the research studied legal issues to gain a better understanding of the scope of “ordinary residents” in the RPA. Findings from more than 150 papers/reports/news articles are synthesized in Chapter 2. The research team also reviewed questionnaires of the major nationally representative surveys like those conducted by Census of India, National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and the India Human Development Survey (IHDS). To ascertain that the study included all relevant secondary data, the team also searched the International Household Survey Network (IHSN) and Dataverse.org to find if there were any publically available micro data that could be used for the present study. However, owing to data availability limitations, only the following secondary data were utilized in this study: (a) Census of India 2001 was used to report migration rates across districts, and (b) Voter turnout data from ECI's statistical reports of elections to state legislative assemblies.