ABSTRACT
Chapter 1, “The affordable housing puzzle,” presents the book’s major question: Why is the formal market for affordable housing so small in India, despite the indications that it could be feasible? It opens with some short case studies describing people whom the authors met. These cases are followed by a more detailed analysis of the current situation and the reasons for it. It provides some background on the slum dwellers and outlines the methodology for the study. The chapter considers the census data and ascertains that there is a (growing) shortage of housing in Chhattisgarh and in India in general, in spite of all the efforts made by the state and national governments. It also concludes, theoretically and using housing affordability studies, that many urban poor households could actually afford to buy an affordable dwelling, based on government price norms, if it were available; a point which will be later established in Chapter 6 using fieldwork data. In that case, the shortage of housing for some of the households in these segments can, in principle, be met by private builders - this is referred to as the ‘market solution’ in this book.
