ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು, ಗೋವಾ ಮತ್ತು ಮುಂಬೈಗೆ ವಲಸೆ: ನಮ್ಮ ಉದ್ಯೋಗ ಕೊರತೆಯ ಮಾನವೀಯ ಬೆಲೆMigration to Bengaluru, Goa and Mumbai: the human cost of our job gap

Migration to Bengaluru, Goa and Mumbai: the human cost of our job gap

Walk through any village in Bagalkot, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura or Belagavi and ask where the 20-to-30-year-olds are. Many give the same answer: *"Avaru Bengaluru-alli iddare"* — they are in Bengaluru. Or in Goa, Mumbai, Pune, Hubballi. They went because there was nothing to do after the harvest, because the rains failed again, because the degree they earned did not turn into a job at home.

This is not laziness, and it is not bad luck. It is the predictable result of one fact: almost all of Karnataka's good jobs sit in one city at the far southern end of the state, hundreds of kilometres from us.

One city holds the work

Bengaluru Urban alone produces roughly 37–39% of Karnataka's entire economy — its share of state GSDP rose from about 37.8% in 2022-23 to about 39.1% in 2023-24. No other district contributes even 10%. Bengaluru accounts for over 90% of the IT activity in the state. The income gap that follows is stark: Bengaluru Urban's per-capita income is around ₹6.2 lakh, while Kalaburagi's is the lowest in the state at about ₹1.25 lakh — nearly five times less.

When one corner of the state holds nine-tenths of the best work, the rest of us are not lazy. We are simply left out of where the work is.

The leaving, and the not getting ahead

As per the 2011 Census, about 64% of migrants into Bengaluru came from within Karnataka itself — many of them marginal farmers and farm labourers. North Karnataka sits in a dry, rainfed zone hit repeatedly by drought; the 2023 monsoon ran a roughly 34% deficit, pushing families to send a member away to earn.

And even those who migrate often do not get ahead. A field study in Raichur district followed young people aged 18–22 from five villages, given government skill-training and placed in Bengaluru. Around 600 were trained between 2014 and 2018. Typical placement pay was only ₹8,000–₹10,000 a month — and the work was often not what they were trained for. After paying around ₹4,500 a month for a paying-guest room, there was almost nothing left to send home. Many simply returned to their villages, where local quarry or construction work paid as much without the rent.

That is the trap: migrate, struggle, return, repeat. The city does not lift them; it just rents them a room. The same young person, given a job near home, keeps both the wage and the family.

Our position

We are not against Bengaluru, against any other region, or against any community. We are for bringing the jobs to where the people already are. Migration must be a choice, never a compulsion.

We demand a permanent North-Karnataka Employment Commission to map every vacancy and publish district-wise placement data; a fair, local-first jobs policy within constitutional limits; the extension of Article 371(J) to the Kittur-Karnataka districts so the job-and-education protection Kalyana-Karnataka has reaches the whole north; and processing industry built where the crop is — sugar, cotton, dairy, pulses — so the wealth of our fields turns into wages in our towns.

A young person of North Karnataka should be able to earn a decent living without leaving North Karnataka. That is the injustice we exist to end.

*ಉತ್ತರ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿಯೇ ಮೂಲ ಮಂತ್ರ — Development of North Karnataka is the fundamental mantra.*