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with other 4flUcial problems for priority of funds, staff and execution. The rate of growth of the housing shortage is SO great that it seems inCQnceivable that any of the undcrdeve1- 4ped countries can ever hope to catch up with. the deiriand. , The prime evidence of massive housing, deficits in urban India is the huske. These KaeMa, as distinct from Pukka, or makeshift structures seem to appear overnight to become the abode of hundreds of thousands of squatten. Most commonly ~ne-room siZe, they produce very high denSities of population in areas totally lacking in amenities. Municipal officials make futile efforts aimed at their elimination and control, only to see their phoenix-like reappearance. Because of the housing shortage, they are ineradicable and continue to impede. all .efforts towards rational economic development.1I

As a result of modern urbanization in places like India, there are millions of people who are absolutely

shelterless but merely sleep on the street pavements

wherever they happen to be. In Calcutta, where the problem of housing is most acute, over a million people are homeless. To provide even the lowest-cost housing

for them, it would be necessary to build another city. Since the resources for this are lacking and the ~pula·

tion mounts at astronomical rates, this is impossible.

Another. problem inseparable from the adoption.

of westemcapitalism which frustrates any efforts

towards raising the common people’s living standards is inflation. Inflation, resulting in the acclerating sharp,

rapid, indefinite rise of prices in essential commodities

is experienced all over the world today but the greatest

burden of of inflation falls on the people in the poor countries where the cost of living is increasing so fast¹