Understanding informal settlements remains a challenge for designers and policymakers as they seek appropriate responses to the needs of the informal settlers. Unless professionals engage with the real world experiences of informal living, their designs and decisions are marginally an outcome of a relevant design process that addresses limitations, preferences, and skills of informal dwellers. Also, lack of set definitions for various expression of informality such as squatters, slum, and informal settlements makes it difficult for policymakers to devise an operational framework for addressing housing issues. This paper presents the review of existing state of literature about how various researchers identify informality and issues with recent approaches for providing housing for informal dwellers of India.
