In almost every census, a question is asked on a person’s place of birth. On the basis of the information obtained through this question, all enumerated persons in the population can be classified in either of the following two groups: (i) Migrants or life-time migrants, defined as persons who are enumerated in a place which is different from the place where they were born; and (ii) Non-migrants defined as person who were enumerated in the place where they were born.

The category of migrants is then further sub-divided into various migration streams on the basis of specific places of birth and places of residence. For example, a person enumerated in one of the States or Union Territories of India in 1971 may be cross-classified with the State of his/her birth.

It may be seen from this Table that, in the 1961 census, 35,876,823 persons were born in Andhra Pradesh and were also enumerated in Andhra Pradesh (row 1, column 2, the figure in the diagonal).

Similarly, 36,645,201 persons were born in Maharashtra and were enumerated in the same State (row 9, column 10, the figure in the diagonal). Each figure in the diagonal cell of the Table, underlined for easy identification, represents the number of persons who were enumerated in the place where they were born.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

They constitute a category of life-time non-migrants. The remaining figures of each column represent life-time in- migrants to a particular State. Of the total persons who were enumerated in Andhra Pradesh, 943 were born in Assam 2,965 in Bihar, and 6,555 in Gujarat etc.

The sum of the figures in Column 2 minutes the number of non-migrants enumerated in Andhra Pradesh and born in Andhra Pradesh (35,376,823), gives in the total number of life-time in-migrants in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

In other words, in Andhra Pradesh, 582,773 persons were in-migrants in 1961. The row totals indicate the total out-migrants and the column totals indicate the total in-migrants.

The row and column totals, of course, do not include figures in the diagonal (underlined), as they indicate the number of non-migrants.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The streams of life-time migrants may be more conveniently which, for Andhra Pradesh, the number of in-migrants and out-migrants, the number of net-migrants, the origin and destination of each stream of migration to and from Andhra Pradesh, and the net balance for each pair of streams, are presented. It may therefore be concluded that Andhra Pradesh has been a predominantly out-migrating State in 1961.

The place of birth statistics can also be used to measure rural- urban migration. According to the 1971 census of India, life-time rural-urban migration was of about 23.8 million persons, urban-rural migration was of about 7.8 million persons and the net migration to the urban areas was of about 16 million persons.

There are several advantages as well as disadvantages of using information on the place of birth to measure life-time internal migration. It is obvious that the question on the place of birth is simple and easy to ask, and it is easily understood.

It is expected that a person would easily remember his/her place of birth, and therefore the information obtained through this question would be accurate and complete. Even in such a straight ward question, there are also possibilities of response errors which should not be overlooked.