🚪 Why they leave the village
Farms are small, farm jobs are few, hazards can wipe out a harvest, and villages often have weak schools and health care.
Changing Rural Environments » Hazards and Rural-Urban Migration
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: 5.2c Natural hazards and rural-urban migration as factors of rural change
- How natural hazards change rural areas in India
- Why people leave villages for cities in India
- How migration changes both the village and the people who stay
- How to link hazards and migration in a case-study answer
🔒 Unlock Full Course Content
Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseThe last two factors in rural India
In the lesson Rural Change in a Developing Country you met India and two factors of rural change: population growth, and the changing farm economy and landholdings. Here we finish the spec list with the other two factors in the same country: natural hazards and rural-urban migration.
Key terms:
- Natural hazard: a natural event, such as a flood, drought or cyclone, that can harm people and property.
- Monsoon: a seasonal wind that brings heavy rain to India, mainly from June to September.
- Drought: a long period with much less rain than normal.
- Rural-urban migration: the movement of people from the countryside to towns and cities.
- Remittances: money that migrants send home to their families.
Factor 3: natural hazards
Most farmers in India depend on the monsoon for the water their crops need. When the monsoon is normal, harvests are good. When it fails or is too strong, rural families can lose their income very quickly. Many poor families have few savings and little insurance, so one bad year can change their lives.
🌊 Floods
Heavy monsoon rain makes rivers burst their banks. In Bihar the Kosi river has flooded huge areas of farmland, wrecking crops, homes and roads.
☀ Drought
When the monsoon is weak, crops fail and wells dry up. Drought has hit farming areas in states such as Maharashtra, leaving farmers without income and short of water.
🌀 Cyclones
Powerful storms hit the east coast, for example in Odisha. High winds and sea surges destroy crops, houses and fishing boats.
Hazards cause rural change in several ways:
- Crops and livestock are lost, so incomes fall and families go into debt.
- Homes, roads, schools and clinics are damaged and take a long time to repair.
- Some families give up farming or leave the village, so the population falls.
Hazards are often what pushes a family to leave. They can also make the other factors worse: a drought on a tiny farm hurts far more than on a large one.
Factor 4: rural-urban migration
Large numbers of people leave India's villages for cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Some move for good. Others move for part of the year and return home for the harvest or for festivals.
🏢 Why the city attracts them
Cities offer more jobs, for example in building work, factories and services, and better schools and hospitals.
Migrants are often young men, although many women move too. Whole families may go if they can find work and a place to live.
How migration changes the village
✅ Positive changes
Migrants send remittances home. This money pays for food, school fees, medicine and better houses, and some families use it to buy farm equipment. There is also less pressure on the land when fewer people depend on it.
❌ Negative changes
The villages lose many of their young, strongest workers. Children and older people are left behind, farms may be farmed less well or left empty, and there are fewer customers for village shops and services.
Worked example
Question: Explain how rural-urban migration has changed rural areas in India. [3 marks]
Answer: Many young people leave villages for cities such as Mumbai to find jobs (1). Migrants send remittances home, which pays for food, schooling and better houses (1). However, the village loses young workers, so some farms are left unused and the people left behind are mainly children and older people (1).
Linking the factors
A strong case-study answer shows how the factors connect. Small farms and population growth leave too little work. A flood or drought then removes the harvest. The family has little choice, so someone migrates to the city. The money they send home keeps the family going, but the village has fewer workers. Use words such as because, so and this leads to.
Common mistakes
- Writing about hazards in general. Name the hazard and the place, such as Bihar floods or cyclones in Odisha.
- Saying migration only harms villages. Remittances bring real benefits, so give both sides.
- Forgetting that migration is a cause of rural change here, not just something that happens in cities.
- Using examples from the UK. This lesson is about India, a developing or emerging country.
Exam-style question
(a) State one natural hazard that affects rural areas in India. [1 mark]
(b) Explain how natural hazards and rural-urban migration have led to rural change in a named developing or emerging country. [4 marks]
Model answer
(a) Floods, drought or cyclones (any one) (1).
(b) In India, a weak monsoon causes drought, so crops fail and farmers lose their income (1). Floods in Bihar destroy homes and farmland, so some families leave the village (1). Many young people migrate to cities such as Delhi to find work (1). They send remittances home, but villages lose workers and are left with mainly children and older people (1).
Exam tip
In a 4-mark case-study question, give two linked points on each factor and name India and one place or hazard in each.