Poverty, Migration, and Environment Nexus

Rural poverty is prevalent not only in the agricultural sector but also in the nonfarm sector in India. Climate change effects, aggravating the problems of water scarcity, have reduced the speed of labor absorption in the farm sector. Agricultural labor has become redundant, and disguised unemployment is on the rise. The rural nonfarm sector has emerged as a proliferation of the supply-push phenomenon. Those who migrate out have a strong probability of getting absorbed in urban sector activities characterized by low productivity, which in turn results in meager earnings for the workers and overlaps with the set of urban poor. Such processes not only tend to affect the standards of living in terms of consumption but also raise poverty measured on the basis of housing, education, and health outcomes. Populations living in slums and squatter settlements suffer from housing poverty as well as “employment problem” in the urban spaces. Inadequate sanitation and sewerage result in environmental pollution, and the lack of basic amenities accentuates the health problems.