Theme
India's Urbanisation and Migration
India's urbanisation and migration is the structural transition of people out of agriculture and villages into towns, cities and non-farm work — measured by the Census, the Periodic Labour Force Survey and municipal data, and governed through a fragmented set of institutions rather than a single authority. As of 2026 the last complete Census is still 2011, when 31.16% of Indians lived in urban areas and about 45.36 crore (37% of the population) were internal migrants by place of last residence. The defining feature of the system is a gap: city populations and informal settlements grow faster than the finances, legal rights and data that are meant to serve them, and the workers who move to build the cities remain largely uncounted and outside city welfare.
Updated
- Urban share (Census 2011)
- 31.16% — about 377 million people
- Internal migrants (Census 2011)
- ~45.36 crore, ~37% of the population, by place of last residence
- Migration rate (PLFS 2020-21)
- 28.9% overall (males 10.7%, females 47.9%)
- Municipal revenue (RBI, 2023-24)
- ~0.6% of GDP across 232 municipal corporations, roughly half from own sources and the rest from transfers
Role
India’s urbanisation and migration is best understood as one system with no single owner. The measurement sits with the statistical state — the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (under the Ministry of Home Affairs) runs the decennial Census, while the Ministry of Statistics compiles the Periodic Labour Force Survey and is fielding a 2026-27 National Migration Survey. The delivery is split again: the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs sets urban policy and co-finances city missions but does not govern cities, which belong to state governments and to the municipal bodies created by the 74th Amendment; migrant labour is a subject of the Ministry of Labour through the labour codes and the e-Shram register; and distress migration links back to rural welfare run by the Ministry of Rural Development. No one desk sees the whole flow of people, money and law.
The fault line the desk tracks is a persistent gap between growth and capacity. City populations and informal settlements expand faster than municipal finances — the Reserve Bank has put urban local bodies’ revenue at under 1% of GDP — and the workers who move to build the cities are largely absent from city welfare, counted late and thinly. Because the last full Census is 2011, much of the state’s planning and targeting has run on 16-year-old population data. The contests here are structural: whether India is genuinely under-urbanised or merely under-counts its towns; whether the labour codes strengthened or diluted migrant protections; and whether devolution to cities under the 74th Amendment was ever completed. This desk connects to the urban, labour, rural, statistics, home-affairs and finance desks precisely because the theme runs across all of them.
Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.
Timeline since 1947
- reference
Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act enacted
Parliament passed the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, requiring contractors who recruited workers across state lines to register, and mandating displacement allowances, journey and housing provision. It was the principal statute governing migrant labour for four decades before being subsumed into the labour codes.
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74th Constitutional Amendment creates urban local bodies
The 74th Amendment gave municipalities constitutional status, listed 18 functions in a Twelfth Schedule intended for devolution to cities, and provided for State Finance Commissions and Metropolitan/District Planning Committees. Because devolution of funds, functions and functionaries was left to state discretion, the amendment's promise of empowered city governments remained unevenly realised.
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Last dedicated national migration survey (NSS 64th round)
The National Sample Survey Office's 64th round on employment, unemployment and migration was the last standalone national migration survey for over a decade, leaving policy to rely on ageing data until a migration module was added to the Periodic Labour Force Survey in 2020-21.
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Census 2011: 31.16% urban, a surge in census towns, 45.36 crore migrants
Census 2011 recorded an urban population of about 377 million (31.16%), the first decade in which urban added more people than rural. The number of census towns — settlements urban in character but still governed as rural panchayats — jumped from 1,362 (2001) to 3,894, against 4,041 statutory towns, feeding the debate over 'hidden' urbanisation. It also counted about 45.36 crore internal migrants (~37%) by place of last residence.
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Street Vendors Act formalises a key urban informal livelihood
Parliament passed the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, requiring local authorities to survey vendors, form Town Vending Committees and issue certificates of vending — converting a large slice of the urban informal economy from a policing matter into a planning obligation.
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Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT and urban PMAY launched
The Union government launched its three flagship urban programmes on the same day — the Smart Cities Mission for 100 cities, AMRUT for basic infrastructure, and the urban Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for affordable housing — the largest centrally driven push on urban capacity in decades.
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COVID-19 exposes the migrant-data void; the 1979 Act is repealed into the OSH Code
The 2020 lockdown triggered a mass reverse migration of workers on foot to their villages; the government told Parliament it had no data on how many migrant workers died. The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance (In Re: Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers) and pressed for community kitchens, ration portability and a national worker database. The same year the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 was repealed and subsumed into the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020.
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e-Shram, the national database of unorganised workers, launched
Following the pandemic and Supreme Court directions, the Ministry of Labour and Employment launched e-Shram to register India's unorganised workforce — including migrant, construction, gig and platform workers — the first attempt at a single national worker register. Registrations later crossed 30 crore.
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RBI Report on Municipal Finances quantifies the city-revenue gap
The Reserve Bank's Report on Municipal Finances, covering 232 municipal corporations, found their revenue at about 0.6% of GDP in 2023-24 — roughly half from their own sources and the rest from transfers from higher tiers, and far below central (9.2%) and state (14.6%) revenues. By a widely cited comparison, India's municipal revenues have stagnated near 1% of GDP for more than a decade, against roughly 7% in Brazil and 6% in South Africa — the sharpest recent framing of why municipal capacity lags city growth.
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Census 2027 notified — first count since 2011, digital, with caste enumeration
The government's intent to hold the delayed Census was notified in the Gazette on 16 June 2025, with reference date 1 March 2027 (1 October 2026 for snow-bound areas). It is designed as India's first digital census and, following an April 2025 Cabinet decision, is to enumerate caste; the second phase is intended to capture migration and fertility data. The 16-year gap since 2011 has meant welfare targeting and city planning ran on decade-old population figures.
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NSO launches a year-long National Migration Survey
The National Statistical Office announced a dedicated nationwide migration survey, reported to run July 2026 to June 2027 — the first standalone national migration survey since the NSS 64th round of 2007-08 — intended to map internal mobility that the PLFS module and the Census only partly capture.
Frequently asked
- What is India's Urbanisation and Migration?
- India's urbanisation and migration is the structural transition of people out of agriculture and villages into towns, cities and non-farm work — measured by the Census, the Periodic Labour Force Survey and municipal data, and governed through a fragmented set of institutions rather than a single authority. As of 2026 the last complete Census is still 2011, when 31.16% of Indians lived in urban areas and about 45.36 crore (37% of the population) were internal migrants by place of last residence. The defining feature of the system is a gap: city populations and informal settlements grow faster than the finances, legal rights and data that are meant to serve them, and the workers who move to build the cities remain largely uncounted and outside city welfare.
- What does India's Urbanisation and Migration do?
- Its remit covers The urban transition and its measurement (Census, urban/statutory/census towns), Internal migration — inter-state, rural-to-urban, seasonal and circular labour, Informal settlements, slums and affordable/rental urban housing, Municipal finance and the capacity of urban local bodies (74th Amendment), The legal and welfare status of migrant workers (ISMW Act, OSH Code, e-Shram, ONORC), The data systems that count cities and movement (PLFS, National Migration Survey).
- What is the latest on India's Urbanisation and Migration?
- As of 2026-07-28: NSO launches a year-long National Migration Survey. The National Statistical Office announced a dedicated nationwide migration survey, reported to run July 2026 to June 2027 — the first standalone national migration survey since the NSS 64th round of 2007-08 — intended to map internal mobility that the PLFS module and the Census only partly capture.
Official sources
The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.
- Official website
www.mospi.gov.in/