Pune Snapshot

The demographic projection report prepared by the population research centre of the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics (GIPE) in Pune says the percentage of migration to the city will be on the decline after 2011.“It has been observed in previous years that employment was the main reason for people to move to the city. However, opportunities in the formal sector are declining and unskilled people will find it difficult to get a foothold in big cities,” said Sanjeevanee Mulay, who prepared the report and headed a team of two researchers.“There’s a limit to growth and according to me, migration will come down in future,” said Mulay, who retired as a reader from the institute a couple of months ago.Mulay prepared the report as sought by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for the development plan (DP). Prashant Waghmare, city engineer, PMC, said, “It is mandatory to do a survey on the city’s population while making a development plan. Accordingly, we handed over the task to GIPE. This study will tell us where exactly the social and economic status of the city stands. It will also give us a brief idea about the employment pattern in various sectors. It will basically help us build our development plan better.” According to the report submitted to the PMC, the rising trend in migration to the city seen in the 1991 and 2001 censuses was mainly due to economic reasons. The estimated migration between 1991-2001 was 3.6 lakh, which was about 15 per cent of Pune’s population at the end of the decade.Taking into account the expansion of the information technology (IT) sector in recent years and the probable impact on migration, the re-port projects that, between 2001-2011, migration will remain constant at 12 per cent as in the past two decades. But between 2011-2021, it will decline to 10 per cent and to 8 per cent between 2021-2026.