The cultural history of man viewed house as a place of safety and an important determinant of personal and family satisfaction. Modern housing includes for more than the living space and shelter. Its nature and value are determined by the facilities like neighbourhood, access to education, health amenities, security and availability of community facilities, employment and so forth. Only very few societies have been successful in providing adequate housing. A number of developing countries have come to recognize the magnitude of the problems and are adopting different strategies for housing and building policy. The main theme of the book which is based on a research project completed in 1981 at the University of Mysore deals with the shortage of housing among the lower income groups and the poor besides those without a house in rural areas. In rural India housing poses a different problem. There is acute shortage of housing in village. The present shortage N put at twenty million units with an annual backlog of two million units due to population growth. An attempt is made by the authors to analyses the efforts of one of the governmental measures to the benefit of rural houseless population in Karnataka, one of the states of the Indian union. Much of the conclusions are based on the implementation of the Peoples (Janata) Housing Scheme during 1970s. The findings are revealing. The social political situation in rural areas of the state militates against the welfare schemes undertaken to the good of the poor and the needy. Nearly seventeen per cent of the village residents are without a place of their own to live. Plan allocation towards rural housing is meagre. Land reforms and land ceiling laws are simply not helpful in tackling the problems effectively. Interestingly the state government has taken initiative through various schemes to house the poor and houseless with priorities and yearly targets. The strategy is working fairly well. The authors view that with pragmatic planning it would go a long way in meeting the challenge of housing need in village India.

About the Author
Dr. C. Parvathamma is Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Mysore and Chareman, Oist-graduate department of Sociology and Social-work. Hedr publications include Politics and Religion sociological Essays on Veerasaivism, Under the Impacdt of Directed Change, New Horizons and Scheduled Castes, Employment Problems of University Graduates, and Scheduled Castes and Tribes. besides Professor Parvathamma is associated with a number of Professional organizations and Government of Post-graduate Studies and research i8n Socialogy University of Mysore.

Table of Contents
Introduction. Housing in India. Housing in Karnataka. Rural Houseles-Background. socio--Economic conditions of ruralo poor and houseless. Planned Rural Housing in Karnataka. Land Reforms and Rural Houseles. Bibliography. Appendix.