Measures to Mitigate Rural-to-Urban Migration

Migration of people from rural areas to urban regions has greatly increased over
the years due to numerous aspects including poverty and food insecurity, limited
economic activities and education opportunities, inaccessibility and a small variety of
choices of goods and services, low-income rates, and inadequate employment
opportunities (Lavuri, 2018; Singh & Parmar, 2020). This leads to the increase of
population in urban areas and could also lead to the decline of rural inhabitants; thus,
certain measures should be taken to moderate the harmful effects of migration and
boost sustainability in urbanization.
One of the means to deal with migration to urban regions is by advancing rural
development and establishing more economic activities that can produce additional job
offers to the people, which include, advancing agricultural production, constructing
various infrastructures, and putting up small businesses, among others. For instance, in
India, the government induced various programs, especially employment opportunities
and small business ventures for the rural people, such as small livestock production,
fishpond or aquaculture, field and horticultural crop production, and mushroom
production, thereby providing income to households (Divakar et al., 2019). Meanwhile,
the emergence and acceptance of teleworking after the COVID-19 pandemic has
greatly influenced the urban-to-rural migrants of Hokuto City, a rural municipality in
Japan, and the city showed great value for raising children as well as nature, good
housing, and food provision (Takahashi et al., 2021). On the other hand, improving the
irrigation infrastructure as well as the water supply and regulation for smallholder rice
farmers in the Philippines plays an important role in fostering inclusive rural
transformation (Higgins et al., 2021).

Local government should also work in delivering various services closer to the
rural people such as government agencies and offices, healthcare, education, and other
basic amenities. For instance, a comparative study between two elementary schools
from Malang City (urban areas) and Malang Regency (rural areas) in Indonesia showed
that there are substantial differences in the school services between the areas, hence,
there is a need for suitable policy measures for provision of balanced educational
facilities development among each area, as the accessibility of public facilities such as
educational facilities are essential in supporting community activities and needs, and
implementation of development programs (Setyono & Cahyo, 2017).
Overall, as rural-to-urban migration continues to increase, various actions can be
taken to mitigate its effects, which will not only promote sustainable urbanization but
also improve rural transformation.
References:
Divakar, S., Panda, C. K., & Paswan, A. (2019). Government induced programmes to
mitigate rural-urban migration under climate change dynamics. Current Journal of
Applied Science and Technology, 37(6), 1-6.
http://dx.doi.org/10.9734/CJAST/2019/v37i630327
Higgins, D., Arslan, A. & Winters P. (2021). What role can small-scale irrigation play in
promoting inclusive rural transformation? Evidence from smallholder rice farmers in the
Philippines. Agricultural Water Management, 243(1), 106437.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106437
Lavuri, R. (2018). Evaluating the factors impact on rural to urban migration – a study.
International journal of Rural Development, Environment and Health Research (IJREH),
2(2), 18-29. https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijreh.2.2.3
Setyono, D. A. & and Cahyo, D. D. (2017). School services pattern in urban and rural
areas: A comparatives study (Case study: Elementary school in Malang City and
Malang Regency). IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 70,
012051. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/70/1/012051
Singh, N. K., Parmar, K. (2020). A study on factors responsible for rural urban migration.
International Journal of Agricultural Invention, 5(2), 194-197. https://doi.org/10.46492/ijai
%2F2020.5.2.8
Takahashi, Y., Kubota, H., Shigeto, S., Yoshida, T., & Yamagata, Y. (2021). Diverse
values of urban-to-rural migration: A case study of Hokuto City, Japan. Journal of Rural
Studies, 87, 292-299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.09.013.