CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 50 of 120

Correct — C, Marriage. In the Census of India every migrant is asked why they moved, and the answers are grouped as work or employment, business, education, marriage, moved after birth, moved with household, and other. For women the pattern is overwhelming and stable across censuses: marriage is the single largest reason, accounting for roughly two of every three female migrants at the 2011 Census. The reason is village exogamy in most of India — a woman customarily marries outside her natal village and moves to her husband's, which registers as a change of usual residence even when the distance is a few kilometres. That is also why so much female migration is short-distance and intra-district, while male migration, dominated by work, runs longer and more often crosses state lines.

• (a)Employment — Work and employment is the leading reason for MALE migration, not female. It matters for women too, and its share has been rising, but it is nowhere near marriage in the census counts.
• (b)Education — A small share of all migration for either sex. Most schooling happens within the place of residence, and higher-education migration involves a comparatively narrow slice of the population.
• (d)Business — Smaller still, and the most male-skewed of the reasons the census records. It never approaches the scale of marriage migration.

The Census counts a migrant by place of last residence: anyone enumerated somewhere other than where they last lived is a migrant, however short the move. Because the definition is that broad, it sweeps in the routine post-marital move of a bride, and the recorded volume of female migration is therefore very large. About 35 per cent of India's population counted as internal migrants at the 2011 Census.

This item is really about a definition rather than about a labour market. Once you see that a woman moving to her husband's village counts as a migrant under the place-of-last-residence rule, the dominance of marriage follows arithmetically from how common that move is. A useful pairing to carry: marriage leads for women, work leads for men. One honest note on the figure — censusindia.gov.in blocks automated access, so the two-thirds share quoted here comes from published analyses of the Census 2011 migration tables rather than from a table read directly. Treat the direction as settled and the precise percentage as approximate.

• The Census records reasons for migration as work or employment, business, education, marriage, moved after birth, moved with household, and other.
• Marriage is the largest single reason for female migration in India, at roughly two-thirds of female migrants at the 2011 Census.
• Work or employment is the leading reason for male migration.
• About 35 per cent of India's population were internal migrants by place of last residence at the 2011 Census.
• Female migration in India is predominantly short-distance and intra-district, reflecting village exogamy.

• Reading the question as being about the labour market and answering employment; that is the male pattern.
• Assuming most female migration is long-distance — the marriage move is usually within the district.

As a biggest-reason item by sex, or as a statement-set on migration streams and the census definitions.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  According to the Census of India, which is the leading reason for migration among males?

  • (a)Marriage
  • (b)Work or employment
  • (c)Education
  • (d)Moved after birth

  Answer(b) Work or employment — the male pattern is the mirror image of the female one, where marriage dominates.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Census of India, a person is counted as a migrant by place of last residence if

  • (a)the person has crossed a state boundary
  • (b)the person is enumerated at a place other than where he or she last resided
  • (c)the person has lived away from home for more than a year
  • (d)the person works outside the district of birth

  Answer(b) the person is enumerated at a place other than where he or she last resided — the definition covers even a move of a few kilometres.