After Karnataka & Maha, UP gives Goa the most migrants

PANAJI: Uttar Pradesh native Sudhir Tiwari landed in Goa in 2015, after spending most of the earlier five years unemployed in his home state.
“I have a Class XII certificate. But I passed the exam by copying. I was young and stupid. This made my qualifications useless. I used to get paid much less for the job of a security guard in my state. Goa was the best bet for me as my sister was already living here, who had come here with her husband,” said the now 27-year-old Tiwari.
In the decade preceding 2011, 1.35 lakh persons migrated into Goa from other states in the country.As expected, Goa receives the most migrants from its neighbouring states of Karnataka and Maharashtra, as per the recently released data on migration of the 2011 Census.
But persons from Uttar Pradesh form the third largest group from another state migrating into Goa, according to the data.
Around 12,897 persons migrated from Uttar Pradesh to Goa. Bihar came fourth, which contributed 5,781 to Goa’s migrant population between 2001 and 2011.
“I do a 12-hour shift here as a security guard and if I work two jobs I can earn about Rs 15,000 to Rs 16,000 a month. But I would get paid only around Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 for the same kind of work in my home state,” said Tiwari, who intends going home to get married and plans to move with his wife to a rented place in Old Goa.
While persons from Karnataka migrated the most into Goa, with over 53,000 shifting residence to the state, Maharashtra came second with 30,644 migrating from there to Goa, as per the Census 2011 data.
Most of the migrants who moved to Goa were in the highly productive age groups of 20 and 35, very much like Tiwari, possibly showing that employment was the reason for migration.
Just like his sister living in Taleigao, Tiwari plans to stay on here and start a family here too.
“I have several younger siblings that my parents have to support and there is nothing to go back to,” said Tiwari, who spent around five years doing odd jobs with his uncle in UP, before his sister called him over to Goa, and he instantly found job as a security guard.
In the case of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, it was mainly people from rural areas of these states that moved to Goa.
But, it was different in the case of Maharashtra. Of the 30,000-odd people from the state that shifted to Goa, more than 20,000 were from urban regions of Maharashtra, while 10,000 came from rural areas.
Between 3,000 to 4,000 persons each also shifted to Goa from the states of Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. However, Goa received a small number of migrants from the rest of the states and Union territories as well, making the tiny state a truly cosmopolitan place with persons from every part of India living here.
There were also 2.60 lakh Goans who moved homes to another location within the state between 2001 and 2011, with residents of urban areas more likely to shift homes to another part of the state. A large part of those migrating within the state were women, showing that marriage and the compulsion for move out of their parents’ home after tying the knot was mainly driving this migration within Goa.
Those migrating to Goa from the north-east were a miniscule number between 2001 and 2011.
“I wish I had studied sincerely till Class XII and could speak a little English, I would have earned better,” said Tiwari.