Carrying hope and anxiety, Indian migrant lands in city of dreams Mumbai

The 21-year-old has already packed his bags and pinned high hopes on finding success and riches in the country's financial capital Mumbai – often called the "city of dreams".

“Mumbai is a city of the rich. Big and famous people live there, and whoever goes to Mumbai, their luck changes. I hope luck also smiles upon me there,” said Kumar, just hours before his night train to Mumbai.

Kumar has spent most of his life in his ancestral village of Barawan, in the Jaunpur district of India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state. His parents passed away in recent years due to illnesses and he has been living under the watch of his elder siblings ever since.

Aside from farm labour and animal husbandry, there are few employment opportunities in the surrounding area. He spends most of his days studying online and making YouTube videos about village life with his friends. Although Kumar has already visited Mumbai in years past, this time is different — he intends to stay for good and find steady employment in its robust job market.

Accompanied by village friends, Kumar arrived at his local county train station on March 10, to catch a 24-hour train ride straight to a suburb of Mumbai, a journey covering around 1,300 kilometres (807.7 miles).

“There is a lot of anxiety in my heart right now. I don’t want to leave but I have to leave because of compulsion. I am leaving now and I don’t know when will I come back, there is a lot of uncertainty,” he said, just before boarding the crowded train to the city that is also the nucleus of India’s entertainment industry.

Kumar is among millions of Indians migrating to cities with hopes to participate in the urban-centric economic boom that has so far bypassed most of the country’s 600,000 villages. And for megacities like Mumbai, home to nearly 27 million people, this has meant coping with new challenges: strained resources, competition for land, a battle for jobs and huge pressures on infrastructure. The massive influx of migrants has resulted in the mushrooming of slums across Mumbai, as the city’s infrastructure has failed to keep up with its growing population of new residents.

Fortunately for Kumar, he has started living and working under the careful watch of his brother-in-law Sunil Kumar, who owns two small factories in Vasai, a suburb of Mumbai.

Just one day after arriving, Kumar started to learn the ropes of his new job at Sunil’s factory which manufactures rubber sealants for pressure cookers. Sunil, he's allowing his younger brother-in-law to stay in his home and work only under the agreement that he completes his college studies.

According to UN figures, Mumbai has a population density of approximately 73,000 per square mile (2.6 square km), which makes it one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Because land is at such a premium, residents of Mumbai frequently live in cheap, cramped housing far from work, leading to long commutes on the city’s busy mass transit system.

The United Nations has projected India’s population could touch 1,425,775,850 on April 14, overtaking China on that day. According to official statistics, over 65% of that falls under the age of 35 years old, many just entering the workforce, like Kumar.

Poonam Muttreja, director of the non-profit think tank Population Foundation of India, believes that to stop the massive influx of migrants to megalopolises, job opportunities need to be created in rural areas and smaller cities. However, she cautioned that existing infrastructure needed to be upgraded first.

"If there are no roads, if there is, you know, no electricity, telecommunications, if these are challenges we are not going to in the short run be able to create a huge number of jobs in the villages. But the second best strategy is to… build the small towns in a way where they can become industrial hubs,” Muttreja told Reuters.

According to a World Bank report, 40 Percent of India's population will be living in urban cities in India by 2036. This is likely to put additional pressure on the already stretched urban infrastructure and services of Indian cities – with more demand for clean drinking water, reliable power supply, and efficient and safe road transport amongst others.

During a recent visit to hip tourist spots in Mumbai, Kumar, sporting a new haircut and pair of sunglasses, took an ample number of videos and photos, posting them on his social media accounts. It was a stark contrast from the usual content he would post in his village of Barawan.

"I am liking it here… much better than the village, so much better than my village,” he said.