A. Introduction
Considering the importance of availability of labour force data at more frequent time intervals, National Statistical Office (NSO) launched Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) in April 2017.
The objective of PLFS is primarily twofold:
- to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the Current Weekly Status (CWS)
- to estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both usual status (ps+ss) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.
The sample design of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is not specifically focused to capture information on migration particulars and temporary visitors. However, in the PLFS canvassed during 2020-21, some additional information was collected on the following aspects:
- information on migration particulars of the household members.
- information on the temporary visitors in the household who arrived after March 2020 and stayed in the household continuously for a period of 15 days or more but less than 6 months.
The report, Migration in India, 2020-2021 contains estimates of the indicators based on information collected in PLFS during July 2020- June 2021 on these aspects.
B. PLFS fieldwork during COVID-19 pandemic
The fieldwork of PLFS was suspended first time from 18.03.2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, and was resumed in June 2020 with the pending samples for this period. This, therefore, had a spill-over effect in completion of field work allotted for the survey period July 2020 to June 2021. Subsequently, there was another spill-over effect due to the 2nd wave of COVID-19 when the field work of PLFS was again suspended in April 2021 in most parts of the country. The field work was gradually resumed in the first week of June 2021 with COVID-19 related restrictions. First visit samples were canvassed physically with retrospective referencing in case of delayed samples. Field work for collection of information in respect of the selected samples of the survey period July 2020-June 2021, was completed by 30.09.2021.
C. Sample Design of PLFS
A rotational panel sampling design has been used in urban areas. In this rotational panel scheme, each, selected household in urban areas is visited four times, in the beginning with ‘First Visit Schedule’ and thrice periodically later with a ‘Revisit Schedule’. In urban area, samples for a panel within each stratum were drawn in the form of two independent sub-samples. The scheme of rotation ensures that 75% of the first-stage sampling units (FSUs)[1] are matched between two consecutive visits. There was no revisit in the rural samples. For rural areas, samples for a stratum/sub-stratum were drawn randomly in the form of two independent sub-samples. For rural areas, in each quarter of the survey period, 25% FSUs of annual allocation were covered.In PLFS conducted during July 2020 – June 2021, information on migration particulars of household members and information on the temporary visitors in the household was collected only during canvassing the first visit Schedules in both rural and urban areas.
D. Sample size
Sample Size for First Visit during July 2020- June 2021 in rural and urban areas for the Annual Report: Out of the total number of 12,800 FSUs (7,024 villages and 5,776 UFS blocks) allotted for the survey at the all-India level during July 2020- June 2021, a total of 12,562 FSUs (6,930 villages and 5,632 urban blocks) were surveyed for canvassing the PLFS schedule (Schedule 10.4). The number of households surveyed was 1,00,344 (55,389 in rural areas and 44,955 in urban areas) and number of persons surveyed was 4,10,818 (2,36,279 in rural areas and 1,74,539 in urban areas).
Total number of migrants surveyed during July 2020 – June 2021 in PLFS are presented in Table 1 along with surveyed number of temporary visitors for whom the present place of residence differed from their usual place of residence.
| Table 1: Surveyed number of migrants and temporary visitors residing temporarily in a place different from usual place of residence | |||
| category | rural | urban | rural + urban |
| migrants | 59,019 | 54,979 | 1,13,998 |
| temporary visitors who arrived after March 2020 and residing temporarily in a place different from usual place of residence | 1,550 | 851 | 2,401 |
E. Conceptual Framework:
- Usual Place of Residence (UPR):Usual Place of Residence (UPR) of a person is the place (village/town) where the person has been staying continuously for at least six months. Even if a person was not staying in the village/town continuously for six but was found to be staying there during the survey with intention to stay there continuously for six months or more then that place was as his/her UPR.
- Migrant: A household member whose last usual place of residence, any time in the past, was different from the present place of enumeration was considered as migrant member in a household.
- Migration rate: Migration rate for any category of person (say, for rural or urban, male or female), is the percentage of migrants belonging to that category of persons.
- Temporary Visitors: For the purpose of this survey, temporary visitors in the household are those persons who arrived after March 2020 and stayed in the household continuously for a period of 15 days or more but less than 6 months. Estimates relating to the temporary visitors pertain to those for whom the present place of residence where he/she was residing temporarily differed from their usual place of residence (UPR).
The report, Migration in India, 2020-2021 is available at the website of the Ministry (https://mospi.gov.in). Key results are given in the statements annexed.
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Key results
Statement 1: Migration Rate
| Statement 1: Migration rate (in per cent) from PLFS July 2020- June 2021 all-India | |||
| category of persons | rural | urban | rural+urban |
| male | 5.9 | 22.5 | 10.7 |
| female | 48.0 | 47.8 | 47.9 |
| male +female | 26.5 | 34.9 | 28.9 |
Statement 2:Migration by location of last usual place of residence
| Statement 2: Percentage distribution of migrants by location of last usual place of residencein terms of rural areas, urban areas or other countries from PLFS July 2020- June 2021 all-India category ofmigrants | ||||
| last usual place of residence in | ||||
| rural areas | urban areas | other countries | all | |
| rural | ||||
| male | 44.6 | 51.6 | 3.9 | 100.0 |
| female | 88.8 | 11.0 | 0.2 | 100.0 |
| person | 83.8 | 15.6 | 0.6 | 100.0 |
| urban | ||||
| male | 53.7 | 44.1 | 2.3 | 100.0 |
| female | 54.0 | 45.6 | 0.4 | 100.0 |
| person | 53.8 | 45.0 | 1.0 | 100.0 |
| rural+ urban | ||||
| male | 50.0 | 47.0 | 2.9 | 100.0 |
| female | 78.8 | 21.0 | 0.2 | 100.0 |
| person | 73.4 | 25.9 | 0.7 | 100.0 |
Statement3:Inter-state migration
| Statement 3: Percentage distribution of migrants by location of last usual place of residencein terms of same State, another State or other countriesfrom PLFS July 2020- June 2021all- India | ||||
| category ofmigrants | last usual place of residence in | |||
| same State | another State | other countries | all | |
| rural | ||||
| male | 62.5 | 33.7 | 3.9 | 100.0 |
| female | 95.8 | 4.0 | 0.2 | 100.0 |
| person | 92.1 | 7.3 | 0.6 | 100.0 |
| urban | ||||
| male | 67.9 | 29.9 | 2.3 | 100.0 |
| female | 84.7 | 14.9 | 0.4 | 100.0 |
| person | 79.0 | 19.8 | 1.0 | 100.0 |
| rural+ urban | ||||
| male | 65.6 | 31.4 | 2.9 | 100.0 |
| female | 92.6 | 7.2 | 0.2 | 100.0 |
| person | 87.5 | 11.8 | 0.7 | 100.0 |
Statement 4: Reason for migration
| Statement 4: Percentage distribution of migrants by reason for migration from PLFS July 2020- June 2021all-India | |||
| reason for migration | male | female | person |
| in search of employment/better employment | 22.8 | 0.6 | 4.8 |
| for employment/ work (to take up employment/ to take up better employment/ business/ proximity to place of work/ transfer) | 20.1 | 0.7 | 4.4 |
| loss of job/closure of unit/lack of employment opportunities | 6.7 | 0.4 | 1.6 |
| migration of parent/earning member of the family | 17.5 | 7.3 | 9.2 |
| to pursue studies | 4.7 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
| marriage | 6.2 | 86.8 | 71.6 |
| natural disaster (drought, flood, tsunami, etc) | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| social / political problems (riots, terrorism, political refugee, bad law and order, etc.) | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| displacement by development project | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| health related reasons | 2.5 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| acquisition of own house/ flat.. | 3.2 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| housing problems | 4.8 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| post retirement | 1.6 | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| others | 8.4 | 1.7 | 3.0 |
| all | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
Statement 5: Percentage of temporary visitorsresiding temporarily in a place different from usual place of residence (UPR)
| Statement 5: Percentage of temporary visitors* in the populationresiding temporarily in a place different from UPR from PLFS July 2020- June 2021all-India | |||
| category oftemporary visitors | rural | urban | rural+urban |
| male | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.8 |
| female | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
| male +female | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| Note: * who arrived after March 2020 and stayed in the household continuously for a period of 15 days or more but less than 6 months |
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DS/VJ
[1]Villages and urban blocks are the smallest area units taken as first-stage sampling units (FSU) in rural and urban areas respectively.