ABSTRACT
The housing conditions among the untouchable classes wherever they are met with in the Deccan, are, as is well-known, deplorable. If new-comers from outside were not continually arriving in Poona, the labouring classes, so far as they were represented by the Mahars, the Mangs, the Bhangis, and perhaps, though less certainly, the Chambhars, would speedily die out, or at any rate become largely reduced in numbers. The families of Mahars are small, slightly lower than the average for the city among the same class of people. The city chosen was Poona, and the method of study was to make a house to house investigation of the people, how they live, what they work at, and under what conditions they carry on their existence. The houses or huts are built by the people themselves, subject to the condition of paying the landlord Re. 1/- or Rs. 1/8/-, per annum.
