Empowerment of Weaker Sections through Housing Schemes in Karnataka - An Empirical Study

Housing is one of the fundamental requirement for human survival. Owning a house provides social and economic security as well as status in the society. Housing for shelter less is considered to be an important component of the package of basic minimum facilities offered by the government and other agencies. Rural housing programme is a veritable tool for fighting poverty and achieving economic prosperity, wellbeing, improving the quality of the life of people at the grassroots level especially those below the poverty line. Housing has importance also significant impact on health, education, drinking water, so that it improves quality of life in rural areas particularly the weaker sections of the society. To providing houses for houseless in rural areas there are many programmes has been implemented by Government of India. Karnataka is one of the foremost states to have taken up housing in a major way. While the Government has launched several other rural housing programmes in the state for the eradication of poverty as well as the development of weaker sections. The objectives of the paper is to examine the major rural housing schemes in Karnataka and its impact on development of weaker sections, to study the performance of rural housing schemes in the study area and to suggest measures to improve housing programmes for human capital. The present study is based on both primary and secondary sources of data.