Abstract
Despite the implementation of various housing schemes, nearly 0.83 million rural people in India continue to live without shelter even after seven decades of independence. West Bengal reflects a similar reality, as about 30,000 rural people survive under the open sky. Moreover, their number increased by about 47.38 per cent from 2001 to 2011. Strikingly, rural homelessness remains almost unacknowledged in academic studies and hardly enters policy discussions, largely because of its ‘invisible’ nature compared to urban homelessness. The present study reveals the district-level scenario of rural homelessness in West Bengal and examines its underlying determinants. Several physico cultural factors contributed to the growth of the rural homeless, many of whom migrated to nearby towns in search of livelihoods and eventually settled in the shadows of urban high-rises.