Patna,(BiharTimes): With 34 lakh Bihar has the second highest number of rural homeless families in the country. West Begnal with 35 lakh families and Madhya Pradesh with 32 lakh families are placed first and third.Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest number of population in the country, has 25 lakh rural families without houses.

Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra follow them.According to the ongoing Socio-Economic Caste Census there are 4.3 crore families in rural India who do not have a house.The Planning Commission’s estimate of four crore for the 12th Plan period calculated on the basis of 2001 as well as 2011 Census.

A rural family is considered homeless if it does not have a house or lives in a one-room or two-room house that has ‘kutchha’ walls and roof.The data says that as many as 2.5 crore households have houses with one-room of ‘kuchcha’ roof and walls while 1.8 crore have two-room dwellings of ‘kuchcha’ roof and walls.