"Strong evidence" of discrimination against Muslims seeking house on rent in Delhi: Helsinki Institute study

By Rajiv Shah
A recent study by a top Helsinki-based institute has found “strong evidence of discrimination against Muslim applicants” seeking to take house on rent in the National Capital Region of Delhi. The study is based, to quote, “A web-based audit of the market for rental properties offered directly by owners/landlords using a sample of 170 rental properties in the Delhi region.”
Pointing towards the discrimination of Muslims, the study says, “Where the probability that a landlord contacts an upper-caste applicant is 0.35, this is only 0.22 for a Muslim applicant.”
“This points to a significant disadvantage faced by Muslim applicants relative to upper-caste Hindus, who must expend significantly more effort to find housing”, the paper says, noting, however, that OBCs or Dalits do not face such strong discrimination.
“We fail to find statistically significant evidence of bias against Scheduled Castes (SC) or Other Backward Classes (OBC)”, the authors of the study say, adding, “Muslims must expend considerably greater time and effort, including search time, to have access to a similar-sized pool of potential rental properties as upper castes.”
However, the study says, “The probability that a landlord contacts an OBC applicant is 0.30, which is lower than the 0.35 for an upper caste applicant”, adding, “The difference of 0.05 is not statistically significant at conventional levels. The corresponding difference between upper castes and Dalits is a trivial 0.01.”
Published as a United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER), paper, and titled “For whom does the phone (not) ring? Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India”, the authors, Saugato Datta and Vikram Pathania (May 2016), say, “A Muslim applicant must respond to 45.5 listings to receive 10 landlord callbacks, while an upper caste applicant must respond to only 28.6 listings to receive the same number.”
“As a rule, applicants to 1-bedroom properties tend to be single men or women. Since all our applicants are male, this implies that the housing rental market is especially hostile to single Muslim men”, the paper says, adding, “Also, Muslim landlords are no more likely to respond to Muslim applicants.”
The survey, say the authors, was carried out “entirely remotely”, exploiting “one of India’s most popular online housing search platforms” over a roughly two-month period in the summer of 2015. The landlords in the study were seeking tenants for apartments or houses in Delhi, and its two largest contiguous suburbs, Gurgaon and in NOIDA.
In all, the results are based on landlord responses to 681 unique applicants to 170 apartments, the authors say, adding, a large majority of listings (71 per cent) were for two- or three-bedroom apartments, with 20 per cent were for one-bedroom properties, and 9 and had four bedrooms.

The distribution of properties differed somewhat between the city and suburbs, with fewer one-bedroom flats in the suburbs.
City flats were about one-and-a-half times more expensive per square foot (Rs. 28.5 psf compared with Rs. 18.1 psf in Gurgaon or NOIDA), and were smaller on average (at a little over 1100 sf, compared with an ample 1600+ sf in the suburbs).
---
Click HERE to download paper

Comments

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Rally in Patna: Non-farmer bodies to highlight plight of agriculture in Eastern India ahead of march to Parliament

P Sainath By A Representative Ahead of the march to Parliament on November 29-30, 2018, organized by over 210 farmer and agricultural worker organisations of the country demanding a 21-day special session of Parliament to deliberate on remedial measures for safeguarding the interest of farm, farmers and agricultural workers, a mass rally been organized for November 23, Gandhi Sangrahalaya (Gandhi Museum), Gandhi Maidan, Patna. Say the organizers, the Eastern region merits special attention, because, while crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. To be addressed by P Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), a statement issued ahead of the rally says, the Eastern India was the most prosperous regi...

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

'MGNREGA crisis deepening': NSM demands fair wages and end to digital exclusions

By A Representative The NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a coalition of independent unions of MGNREGA workers, has warned that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is facing a “severe crisis” due to persistent neglect and restrictive measures imposed by the Union Government.

Arun Kamal’s poetry as conscience: Beauty, ugliness, and the sociology of resistance

By Ravi Ranjan* Poetry in India has never been only about beauty. It has been conscience, witness, and resistance, an art form that breathes life into the anxieties of society while also holding up a mirror to its contradictions. From the ecstatic devotional voices of Kabir and Mirabai to the realism of modern poets who turned their gaze on exploitation and injustice, verse has spoken both for the self and for the collective. In this long lineage, Arun Kamal stands out as a poet who does not merely compose verses but also reflects deeply on the very function of poetry. His poetry and criticism together reveal him as a figure who, in Rajasekhara’s words, is both gold and touchstone—creator and critic in one.

Policy crossroads: Should creamy layer apply to Scheduled Castes and Tribes?

By Rajiv Ranjan Prasad* Although the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are often spoken of together, they are distinct social groups identified through very different criteria. SCs have historically been subjected to untouchability, which led to social, educational, and economic backwardness. STs, on the other hand, are communities that traditionally lived in remote and inaccessible hilly or forested areas, maintaining unique traditions, dialects, and customs. Their marginalization has often been shaped by geographical isolation, primitive traits, economic deprivation, and educational disadvantage.

Counterview

Search This Blog