The income security function of the rural sector: the case of Calcutta, India
Shaw, A.
Economic Development and Cultural Change 36(2): 303-314
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0013-0079 DOI: 10.2307/1153769Document Number: 354116
The paper offers a social function based analysis of rural urban relatioships drawn from a microlevel study of rural contacts and retirement decisions of urban migrant households. The basic argument put forward is that the rural sector performs an important income security function when it provides a retirement place for urban migrants, maintains the elderly and the sick, provides elementary education, and is used as a vacation place by urban migrants. At the descriptive level, the existence of an income security function and the types of income security of 120 migrant households in four of Calcutta's slums is analyzed. At a second level, one specific type of income security (the provision of a retirement place to aged workers) is discussed through a probit analysis of the plans to return of the heads of migrant households. The study indicates that, given the existence of chain migration and strong rural urban contacts, the social and economic pressures of migration on the urban system are likely to be lower than conventially predicted by economists.