Rented accommodation and racist comments

Untouchables of rental market of Delhi by Vivek Shukla 24-Apr-2010 

New Delhi: If you think that there are only social and political untouchables, then you are grossly mistaken. There are untouchables even in the rental market. Africans, Muslims and those who do their own business have to make hell of an effort to find suitable rented accommodation. Those who specialize in providing rental accommodations avoid these three.
Realty advisers say that more often than not they hardly make any effort to find houses for Africans, Muslims and businessmen. Reason: They know the answer of landlords. When they learn about the background of the person, they simply say no.
Kajol Makhijani, of Mak Realtors says earlier landlords avoid only Muslims and businessmen. Now Africans have also added in the list of untouchables. Though she assures colour of the skin is not the issue. […]

Another realtor say that the worst part of this growing trend is that even blacks diplomats from America or European nations like Britain, French and Holland too do not get accommodation on rent at one go. The tag of Africa is becoming a kind of headache for them.

A student of Mass Media in Noida from Congo, Dennis Tsang from Congo reveals that apart from finding a suitable house, they also face rank racist comments. “I never thought that I would have to face such comments in India, the country of Gandhi,” says Tsang, who got a rented flat in Lajpat Nagar-iv after doing lot of hard work.

Devinder Gupta of realty advisory Centruy21 India says that the situation for blacks was not that bad as recently as a few months ago. But, the involvement of many youngsters from Nigeria and some other countries in drug trade in Delhi and parts of the country ruined the image of whole African region and the community, adding “Generally landlords avoid Muslims, businessmen and Africans. Though if they assure them that they would live according to set guidelines, many landlords also rent out their space to them.”