Abstract

India had 641,000 inhabited villages and 72.2 percent of the total population was residing in rural areas as per the 2001 Census. As per the 2011 Census, for first time since 1921, India's urban population has gone up by more than its rural population. Urban India added 91 million to its 2001 total, against rural India's 90.6 million. One of the main reasons for rapid urbanisation, particularly in the last decade, as cited by the Census, is migration. Rural housing has been marginalized both in wider policy discussions as well as within the debates on rural issues because rural housing needs are generally subordinated to urban housing needs in policy priority. Housing is also essential for the well-being and social security of rural households. In rural areas, incomes are generally lower than the urban areas. Many households find it difficult to gain ownership of homes due to seasonal unemployment. This has implications for the social sustainability of rural communities and is causing increased polarization as younger people migrate to the urban areas in search of jobs, leaving behind their old folks and children, resulting in negative impact on rural enterprise and economic viability. The housing sector in general (rural housing in particular), has suffered the lack of planned government resource mobilization and implementation programmes. Although the government has undertaken many initiatives to promote rural housing, these have had a limited impact on the widespread shortfall. One can argue that most rural initiatives have not succeeded because key features of the rural housing sector have been neglected. What is required is the awareness of local dimension in broad housing issues within the rural setting. In this paper, various issues of social sustainable rural housing have been studied. It is recommended that properly addressing these issues is an urgent need.