Doors tight shut for single women

Padmaja Shastri / TNN / Mar 30, 2008, 01:52 IST

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Many single working women who are trying to find an independent accommodation in Hyderabad have to face ridiculous and sometimes humiliating questions.

HYDERABAD: "Kitne friends milne aayenge?' (How many friends will come to meet you?) "Ladke bhi aayenge?' (Will boys/men also come?) "Raat ko bhi aayenge kya?' (Will they come during nights too?).
This is the line of questioning, sometimes bordering on the ridiculous and sometimes humiliation, that many single working women trying to find an independent accommodation in Hyderabad have to face.
The issue assumes significance especially as an increasing number of women from across the country have been coming to the city in the last few years, especially to join its fast-growing IT-BPO population.
Many IT-BPO companies say they assist their outstation female employees in finding a place.

This in terms of maintaining a database of employees' apartments available on rent, brokers' information, working women's hostels etc., on their intranet.
However, there does not seem to be enough awareness as to the problems the girls face while hunting for a place on their own.
Email questionnaires to leading BPOs in the city, including Satyam BPO and Genpact, on the subject went unanswered.
"One house owner in Somajiguda rudely told me and my friend: "Hame aise waise log nahi chahiye' (we don't want rif-raf types to stay here), apart from asking us a whole lot of probing questions. Even though we didn't take that place, we still felt our sense of dignity and privacy was grossly violated,�� said Nandini Nair (name changed), a 25-year old from Pune who came to the city last year to work for a multinational IT company.

It's not just her, but most single female professionals have to pocket many such insults on the way to zeroing-in on a place to stay, in the city. And those in jobs that require them to work late nights like BPOs/call centres, media, advertising and hospitality have it worse, as some house-owners not only give them a once-over, presumably to measure-up their virtue-levels, but also close the apartment/house gates by 10 pm, just like hostels do.
While no boys, no loud music, no late nights, no friends (not the female ones either) staying over are some of the common rules imposed, one apartment building in Marredpally even had problems with a girl rehearsing for a drama with her friends at her penthouse.
She was told to vacate saying that it was a respectable apartment block, where people didn't indulge in things like "theatre"!
In another case, the landlord would constantly harass a girl staying on top of his house enquiring about her every visitor - male or female.
"With so many restrictions, we would not have had any social life anyway. One might as well stay in a hostel or a paying guest accommodation, which would at least cost less,�� said Aparna Nandakumar, a 23-year old from Thrissur, working with Cambridge University Press in the city.
After searching for an apartment, where she could freely have her friends over for a meal or a jolly-good chat-session, for many months, she abandoned the idea and decided to stay in a hostel.
This sort of restrictions and moralistic approach perhaps emanate from the fact that the house owners are becoming very apprehensive as a number of prostitution rings running in "regular�� apartment buildings were busted in the city recently, according to B Padmalatha, a city-based realtor.
"They are being over-cautious as they fear things like police raids because of sex-rackets and suicide attempts by girls jilted in love affairs,�� she said.
"Moreover, most house-owners in Hyderabad come from rural backgrounds and for them women working and acting independently to the extent of living by themselves is still a new phenomena. So, they are yet to recognise that women can handle things on their own,�� said Rao V B J Chelikani, president of United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations.
He is aware of certain apartment buildings where even women residents are reluctant to allow single girls to stay, as they fear that might "distract' their husbands!
"Single women coming for work in Hyderabad have to ready themselves for two interviews. One with the employers and one with the potential house/flat owners. Usually, it is the second one which is far tougher and sometimes downright insulting,�� said Reema Ghosh (name changed), a 27-year old BPO employee.

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