Education and Rural Commuting: A Case Study of Dhubri District in Assam

Abstract

As a merit good, provision of education results in substantial benefit spillover on the society. Education positively affects the attitude of the human resources, their consumption pattern and preferences, innovativeness, attitude towards family size and an assortment of collective attitudes which have importance from economic point of view. Most social scientists would probably agree with the view that it is the manpower resources of a country, not its material resources that ultimately determine the nature and rapidity of economic and social development of a country. The acceleration of seasonal migration, circular migration and commuting of people out of rural areas of developing countries into urban areas is recognized as defining characteristic of demographic, economic and social change with unfathomable implications for socio-economic transformation of rural areas. The paper mainly examines the relationship between educational attainment of people in rural areas and rural commuting in sample villages of Dhubri district of Assam. Besides an attempt is also made to find out the prevailing educational status of rural people in the sample villages. The paper concludes that there is significant positive relationship between education and rural commuting. The main two factors inducing the rural people to commute are found to be earning and education.