The first barrier women face while looking for rental accommodation is her gender Both single men and women are asked questions about their religion, food preference and income
Bengaluru-based online home rental network Nestaway under its survey titled ‘Ease of Settling In’ has thrown up some interesting observations, about the challenges and discrimination faced by a single working professionals searching to rent an accommodation in some of the cities in India.
The study is a result of consumer survey conducted across key cities namely Bengaluru, NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, and analysis based on NestAway’s in-depth understanding of the subject. There were 3000 respondents for the survey, aged anywhere between 21 and 31 years. More than 57% of the respondents were in the age group of 21-24 across the five cities with 88% being single.
Bengaluru figured prominently in this survey because for the meat eating populace of house hunters the going gets difficult.
I have stayed in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru and have a widespread network of friends in the other cities in which this survey was conducted in. Gathering on our collective experience, I’d have to say, the survey captures the sentiments exactly.
Some of the key barriers a single working woman faces in these cities when it comes to renting out an independent accommodation is firstly her gender. Most landlords, rental agencies will shake their heads in silence and sometimes with a deadpan face tell women that the house is available only for bachelors or a family. When asked the reason the answer is usually something like this –“ Women are a problematic lot. Who wants to get into their affairs? Where girls will be, boys will come, then nuisance will be created and then the safety issues. Who wants to be involved in a police case? Also working women keep odd hours of coming and going and they also indulge in smoking and drinking.”
The next barrier, if you have somehow managed to convince your landlord about how sensible and decent you are, is “no male friends allowed” and in the case of South India –Hyderabad and Bengaluru especially – Are you vegetarian or non-vegetarian? I was turned away from three really ‘progressive’ societies in Mumbai for being non-vegetarian and because of my religion. Basically, if you eat non-vegetarian food and haven’t married yet, it’s going to be hard for you to find a home to rent in India.
If you are a young single woman or man of north eastern origin, then good luck finding a house. The landlords already have this mental checklist of people who come from the eastern side of India, to sum it up in one word – problem.
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In Bengaluru, in fact, people who have migrated to the city, like me, because of a job opportunity have had to face the income question as well (strange). Probably the income bracket decides if you can afford a house.
Boys also have their fair share of struggles in finding rental accommodations in these cities. The perception of all boys drinking, smoking, partying at odd hours of the night and bringing in ‘questionable’ girls to the accommodations is something they have to deal with.
So you see, the one group that manages to fit right into the requirements of landlords is the ‘married couple, because then landlords don’t have to be bothered about - girl or boy question, the income part, the safety of the girl part, the noisy partying types. However, in their case the one category that also exists is the vegetarian or non-vegetarian question.
This being said, there are also a lot of house owners in Bengaluru and the other cities, who accept single working tenants from all parts of India, no conditions placed and no questions asked.
