Brief Description of Research Projects Completed

The initiative seeks to improve our understanding of livelihood strategies of migrants, migrant workers and their families, suggest evidence based policy prescriptions for protection of the rights of migrants and create a conducive environment for migrants and recognize the contribution of migrants while formulating poverty reduction and employment strategies. As part of this initiative we have conceptualized SHRAM as a Research Portal and Data Repository. It will serve as an online knowledge community on migration in South Asia with a specific focus on India |SHRAM|. SHRAMIC which is supported by a grant from Tata Trusts seeks to address the following four questions:
1. What are the various types of migration flows captured by nationally representative data and localized studies in order to trace the source of apparent disconnect in the estimates of migration rates and number of migrants based on nationally representative data (lower) and localized studies (higher)?
2. What are the legal and structural impediments to migration?
3. Given that India is becoming increasingly urban, what is the nature of urban livelihoods and what determines the ability of migrants to access livelihoods?
4. How effective is migration as a livelihood strategy?

The IND-URBBS is constructed around understanding how outcomes in urban settlements like structure of occupation, delivery of basic services, and broader aspects of citizenship are affected by the interaction between citizens and state governance mechanisms in three types of sites, viz.: (i) census towns vis-a-vis small statutory towns (ii) informal settlements in large cities vis-a-vis formal settlements of similar nature and (iii) peripheral settlements inside the municipal boundary of the city vis-a-vis settlements outside the municipal city boundary, thereby assessing the effect of differences in public policies according to the extent to which these sites are acknowledged by the state. The University of Burdwan, West Bengal and Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai are partners in this intiative, which is housed in Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

With Indian cities unwelcoming of migrants and lack of employment growth in rural India, an alternative, albeit effective livelihood strategy is commuting daily from rural to urban areas for work. Nearly 12.5 million workers cross the rural-urban boundary everyday while 12.2 million workers report not having a fixed place of work. Such movement of workers is fast developing as an important and new channel of interaction between the rural and urban economy. The goal of this study is to improve our understanding of the commuting worker and highlight the importance of rural-urban commuting as an important feature of the interaction between rural and urban sectors of the Indian economy. Unlike migration, the increase in the number of commuting workers across rural-urban boundaries is relatively under researched. It is expected that this study can help nudge the policy debates away from a primarily migration centric discussion.

The SUBURBIN project positions itself in opposition to a vision of urbanisation reduced to metropolitanization and competition between global cities and that tends to consider the urban world only through the prism of very large cities-even though half of the world's city dwellers do not reside there. The project aims to offer alternative perspectives on 'urban transition' from different disciplines, and linking the macro and micro analysis levels. Beyond a scientific aim, it also strives to actively contribute to the debates about the plurality of development models.

1. S Chandrasekhar (2018) "Migration and Commuting by Individuals in India: Estimates, Welfare Implications, and Knowledge Gaps", Background Paper for "The State of Food and Agriculture 2018", Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
2. S Chandrasekhar and Leena Bhattacharya (2018) "Education of Children from Migrant Rural Households in India: Moving Towards a Coherent Policy Framework", Background Paper for "Global Education Monitoring Report 2019", UNESCO
3. S Chandrasekhar (2007) "Urban Growth Patterns and its Implications for Future Economic, Social, Demographic and Environmental Scenarios in India", Background paper for the "State of World Population 2007 Report, Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth", United Nations Population Fund

The terms of reference of the study were the following
1. Determining the principles governing the formation of an index of different amenities used by the households, viz. type of housing, source of drinking water, type of sanitation, source of lighting and type of cooking fuels from human health and general well-being point of view.
2. Giving both intra amenity and inter-amenity quantitative weights.
3. Giving rationale / justification for assigning such weights.
4. Testing the proposed indices on the information available from 2001 census on the basis of relevant social indicators

By focusing on the geographical concentration of poor assetless households, our objective is to identify poverty hotspots in rural India. We take a different approach in two respects. First, the objective is not to generate an estimate of the number of poor people. Instead, we try to identify the poorest regions of India; by region the reference is to a geographical area (for instance-district or at the sub-district level (tehsil, mandal, block etc)). Such characterization, we argue, not only helps uncover the extent of heterogeneity within each state but could also prove useful for the purposes of geographical targeting of government programmes. Secondly, instead of using NSS data on consumption expenditure of households, we use data on ownership of assets collected as part of Census 2001.

There exist a plethora of initiatives using ICT for improving the delivery of government services and developmental programmes focussing on rural areas in particular. One ambitious programme is the public-private partnership, Akshaya, the state wide e-literacy programme launched by the Kerala State Government. The pilot project was introduced in Malappuram district, Kerala in November 2002. The e-literacy of the entire district was completed within a short span of two years. What are the important lessons to be learnt from the pilot phase of Akshaya in Malappuram?

The focus of the project was on improving our understanding of "Growing Rural-Urban Disparities in Maharashtra".