Rashid's Blog: A Place for Inquisitive Souls

Urbanization through migration is a global phenomenon.Rural Urban Migration augment the process of Urbanization.There are various reasons of migration. It is interesting to study why people migrate.
Many migrate to cities because of the availability of jobs there. Jobs work as pull factor for the process.Migration has become a continuous process affecting the social, economic and cultural lives
of the villagers. Rao (1974) examined the social changes in a metropolitan
fringe village. He distinguished three kinds of situations of social
change in rural areas resulting from urbanization:

1. In villages from where a large number of people have sought employment
   in far off cities, urban employment becomes a symbol of higher social
   prestige.
2. In villages situated near an industrial town with a sizable number of
   emigrants working in towns and cities, face the problems of housing,
   marketing and social ordering.
3. The growth of metropolitan cities accounts for the third type of urban
   impact on the surrounding villages. As the city expands, some villages
   become the rural pockets in the city areas. Hence the villagers participate
   directly in the economic, political and social activities, and cultural life of
   the city.Okhla in Delhi was an example in early days.

Srinivas (1962) outlined the general impact of both industrialisation and urbanization on villages. He showed how the different areas of social life are being affected by urban influences. He pointed out that emigration in South India has had a caste component as it was the Brahmins who first left their villages for towns and took advantage of western education and modern professions. At the same time as they retained their ancestral lands they continued to be at the top of the rural socio-economic hierarchy. Again, in the urban areas they had a near monopoly of all non-manual posts.

Migration is a key process underlying the growth of urbanization. Far
from being a mechanical process, it is governed by economic, social and cultural
factors. This culture contact initiates certain processes of interaction and
different modes of social adjustment in urban areas. Migration has acquired
a special significance in the context of commercialization of agriculture; it has
major implications for urbanization, slums ad social change; it has notable feed
back effects on the place of origin, as the migrants maintain different kinds
and degrees of contact, thus increasing the continuity between rural and
urban areas. Many cultural traits are diffused from area one to another. Also,
new thoughts, ideologies are also diffused from the cities to the rural areas
due to increase in communication via radio, television, newspaper etc.

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