Housing is one of the basic requirements for human survival. For a normal citizen owning a house provides significant economic and social security and status in society. For a shelterless person, a house brings about a profound social change in his existence, endowing him with an identity, thus integrating him with his immediate social milieu. A housing program for the rehabilitation of refugees was taken up immediately after partition by the Ministry of Refugee Rehabilitation and this lasted till around 1960. From 1999-to 2000, a number of initiatives have been taken to improve the Rural Housing (RH) Programme by making provision for the up-gradation of unserviceable kutcha houses and by providing credit with subsidy for certain sections of the poor. Emphasis has also been laid on use of cost affective, disaster resistant and environment friendly technologies in rural housing.