The flight to campus is not always beyond the seas. The comfort of being close to home is driving several young Indians to different Indian states to pursue an education.
In the last 10 years, a total of 37 lakh moved to get a degree, showing that a discouraging academic landscape near home is no longer keeping its youth from travelling to the brighter lights elsewhere.
Departure rate among young men wanting to pursue an education is higher, for 26 lakh shifted as compared to 11 lakh women. Of those, 6.2 lakh youths (or 17%) moved to a new state; 16.8 lakh shifted to another district within their home state in the last 10 years. Karnataka received the largest exodus — 1.8 lakh — from other states and Uttar Pradesh sent out most students — 1.1 lakh.
A January 2014 research paper, Internal Migration for Education and Employment among Youth in India, commissioned by UN-HABITAT's Global Urban Youth Research Network, begins a conversation on whether Indian states must worry about internal brain drain.
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