Human Development is an Engine of Sustainable Development - With Special Reference to Rural Housing Schemes in Mandya District

The literatures and debates on human development on the one hand and sustainability on the other share much in common. Human development is essentially what sustainability advocates want to sustain and without sustainability, human development is not true human development. If human development is about enabling people to lead long, healthy, educated and fulfilling lives, then sustainable human development is about making sure that future generations can do the same. But in some sense adding ‘sustainable’ as a prefix is superfluous, since human development without being sustainable cannot be true human development. Housing is one of the basic requirement for human survival. Owning a house provides social and economic security as well as status in the society. There are several programmes implemented for human development in India. 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 as well women. 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. The objectives of the paper is to examine the major rural housing schemes in Karnataka and its impact on human development, to study the performance of rural housing schemes in the study area and to suggest measures to improve housing programmes for human development. The present study is based on both primary and secondary sources of data.