The Migration Story—II

Extending the analysis in the previous chapter, this chapter estimates the size of remittances and discusses their patterns and impacts. It finds that among migrant households, 68.6% received remittances, and the average monthly household remittance was Rs 5,096. The estimated monthly remittances for the entire state of Odisha amounted to Rs 693.47 crore, with Ganjam district emerging as the recipient of the highest estimated remittances per month with Rs 112.76 crore, closely followed by Bhadrak (Rs 99.23 crore) and Jajpur district (Rs 78.3 crore). However, there existed significant disparities in remittance inflows across districts, as the majority of the districts (21) received remittances below 20 crores. More than 50% of the migrant households received remittances in most districts, but the actual amount received vastly varied. Remittances significantly impacted the living standards of households with migrants in Odisha. 90% of households reported using remittances for meeting expenses of everyday consumption and 73% for health and medical expenses. Among the various social groups, the Other Backward Class (OBC) community received the highest monthly average remittance (Rs 5,527), closely followed by the upper-caste (Rs 5,397), Scheduled Caste (SC) (Rs 4,815), and Scheduled Tribe (ST) (Rs 3,245) households. The STs were the worst off, with the lowest remittances, and only 47% of the ST migrant households received remittances (compared to 74.3% of OBC households, 71.9% of SC households, and 68.7% of upper-caste households). In terms of the rural-urban comparison, 68.8% of the rural migrant households received remittances compared to 52.5% of urban households.