The lure of the city for rural migrants

By Duncan Bartlett
BBC World Service, Delhi, India

Generations have lived in the same village for years

As India's economy flourishes, there is plenty of evidence that the wealth gap is growing too.

Around 750 million of its 1.1 billion inhabitants live below the poverty line, according to World Bank definitions.

The majority of the poor live in the countryside - a stark contrast to life in the cities, where the economic boom has brought new prosperity and many people's salaries have doubled since 2005.

India's booming economy is most noticable in the cities, but 70% of Indians still live in small villages like Mohamed Purmarja in the Haryana district, about 100 km west of Delhi.

Rural tranquillity

Being surrounded by wheat fields, cows, goats and buffaloes may sound idyllic, but many people have decided that they'd be much better off if they moved out of the village and made a new life for themselves in the city.

Jai Prakash Sharma moved to Delhi, began working as a civil servant and now earns enough money to be able to build his own house in the city.

The economic boom has increased the prospect of work

He took me back to his village and introduced me to his family.

"Life in the village is changing, it's getting a bit better but the biggest problem is there is still no work here," he says.

"People have left and gone to work in the army or for the government and they have done well for themselves. They often come back once a year to check their farms and settle the accounts," he adds.

Despite his family living there for many generations, he didn't really have any regrets about leaving the village.

"The city has much better schools, better hospitals. The nearest hospital to here is 10 kilometres away. My children like it there and I'm sure there is a better life for me and my family."

His wife doesn't sound so convinced.

People might get a job but they lose a whole lot of good things Economist Shailendra Kakani

"I feel some regrets about going to the city. Here there is open space. There is clean air. I like it here," she says.

She is aware however, that moving to the city is a price she has to pay for her children's future.

"I regret leaving my family behind, but I'm doing this for our children. If our children become successful, we'll feel that we've achieved something in our lives."

Urban reality

Not everybody finds their fortune in the city.

Sarita is employed as a maid and housekeeper in a big house in Delhi, living in a room built on the roof of the building which she reaches by squeezing through an iron gate about one metre high.

"I like life in the city but I left my family behind - but what to do, I must earn money," she laments.

She occasionally returns to her village to visit her 21-year old daughter but returns to the city.

The thing she most hates about living in the city is the crime. "I am afraid to go out, it is dangerous," she says.

Sarita spends most days from early morning until late at night cleaning floors and doing domestic chores for her employers. She says she's treated well and is grateful for the work.

Quality forsaken

Many other migrants from the country do harder jobs and are paid less money.

Most people move to increase their children's prospects

Economist Shailendra Kakani says millions of Indians have traded rural poverty for an equally tough life in the city.

"Most of them come and they just want to make a simple living. They want first of all to feed their belly, they want to be able to earn just a little extra money to be able to send something back home, or to pay off the loan sharks from whom they've borrowed money," he says.

Most people cannot buy a flat or a bungalow and therefore have to settle for living in the slums.

"The only thing is, they do get a job, but apart from that the quality of life takes a huge beating.

"Back home, at least they had access to clean air, clean water. So, they might get just a job but apart from that they lose a whole lot of good things," he says.

Indian cities have grown sharply in size over the past two decades and so has the pressure on the urban population.

Even the rich complain about pollution, congestion and over-crowding - they are problems which are rarely found in the country.

But until rural India shares in the nation's economic boom, Jai Prakash and Sarita and millions like them will continue to be lured to the cities in the hope for a better life for them and their children.