Noida landlords prefer ‘easy-going’ boys over ‘fussy’ girls

Changing your job and moving to a new city can be a hassle, and for those who moved to Noida for professional reasons, the trouble doesn’t end there. Finding a job seems easier than finding an a place in Noida. If the room is OK, the rent is insane; and if the rent is fine, the landlord isn’t. And your problems increase further if you’re a girl, because Noida’s landlords don’t go by the perception that girls are better-behaved than guys and make for better tenants.For them, keeping girls as a paying guests is an ‘added worry’ for umpteen reasons – like having to implement extra security measures to keep roadside romeos at bay or attending calls from parents asking their daughter’s haal-chaal. We spoke to landlords and girls to find why a female tenant is not so welcome in Noida.
Girls always complain
PG owners of the city say that operating a girls’ PG is difficult than any other job. Pratima Kumari, who runs a PG in Sector 55, says, “These girls complain about anything and everything. ‘Aunty, matar aloo ki sabzi mein matar toh thay nahin, aloo aur paani tha. Aap menu mein aloo paani likha karo’, ‘Aunty, please tell the cook not to prepare pooris or parathas, we don’t want to turn fat’, and for chapattis, they complain, ‘Yeh roti toh hathaure se tootegi.’ We prepare decent meals and try our best to offer good services, but these girls have too many complains and we can’t offer solutions for all of them.” Another PG owner, Bhupesh Khanna, from Sector 19, told us, “I have always heard people saying that you put a girl in a small room, and she will instantly transform it into a home; put boys in any living space, and they rapidly turn it into a men’s hostel. But I beg to differ. These girls keep their rooms so dirty that our cleaners refuse to stay for more than a month. And then these girls complain that their rooms were not cleaned properly.”
Narrating a similar story, Tanu Kumari, a PG owner in Sector 37, says, “It is true that girls are very fussy. Boys don’t bother much about trivial issues, but these girls want everything to be perfect, no matter how messy they themselves are. I have a boys PG. And even though many girls have approached me for accommodation, I refused them all. I can’t bear their melodrama.”
With girls, security is a major issue
“These are grown-up girls and we shouldn’t be bothered about who picks them up or drops them back, and we don’t even interfere. But what is ridiculous that they meet boys outside the PG accommodation every day. Ek-do din chalta hai, but every other day we can’t allow this to happen. So, we had to put up a notice outside the PG, and then, it slowly reduced,” says Manisha Mayank, a PG owner. While SP Sen, who lives in Sector 27, told us, “To earn extra money, we decided to rent a room that is on the other side of the house. Two-three weeks later my wife noticed that a group of boys started gathering on a regular basis in front of our house. They would pass by on their bikes, speeding and shouting. When you rent a room to a girl, you are responsible for her. After a year, when she moved out, we decided to not rent the room to girls.”
Not every landlord is against female tenants in the city, but they agree that keeping one requires them to be alert always. “When we rent house to a girl, we have to keep a tab on her timings just to be sure that she is fine. Girls are smart these days and they themselves take care of the roadside romeos and stalkers. But we can’t take risks, because with girls, security is a major issue, while with boys, cleanliness and late night parties are the only problems. Though many girls came here enquiring for a room, I refused them due to security issues,” says Ritesh Sinha, who lives in Sector 19.
Most PG owners told us that a PG without a watchman is unimaginable for them. “The problem is that boys create a ruckus and we have to deal with it. Be it the couples in love or the scorned lovers, it’s us who have to bear the
brunt. We don’t understand why girls tell the location of the PG to boys. Once we had a girl whose boyfriend used to work in night shifts at a call centre, and he would come to meet her late at night outside the PG, and the girl would come to me begging for a key every other night. When she asked me to give her a duplicate key, I had to refuse and then I gave her ultimatum. It’s a PG, not a hostel – I can’t put other girls’ security at stake because of one. I had to employ a watchman to prevent such incidents.”
Parents call even at midnight
Zaidi Aslam, who has rented his two 3 BHK flats to a group of guys and girls each, told us, “Three girls stay in one of my apartments, while five boys are sharing the other apartment. Parents of these girls call me regarding things like repairing a particular switch or fixing the doors. Not only the girls, but their parents too make life difficult for us, while the boys easily manage on their own. I’ve been renting my house for last 10-12 years, and barring a few occasions, I don’t remember guys calling me. But I have recieved calls from my female tenants and their parents even at midnight. It is better to rent it to boys only.” Even the PG owners say that parents of girls call them to complain about food, electricity and even maid issues.
Girls are more particular, maybe that’s why owners prefer boys: tenants
“People in Noida don’t want to rent their place to girls, and I have also experienced that the landlords are quite interfering in their matters. My landlord keeps saying, ‘Kal late ho gaya tha tumhe’, ‘tum aaj ghar par ho’, ‘bahut dino se tumhare ghar se koi nahi aaya’. And I have to deal with it. If that is what they call concern or ensuring security, then I can’t do anything but laugh at it,” says Sneha Mittal, who lives in a PG in Sector 5. Sulekha, who works at a graphic technologies firm and lives in a PG in Sector 55, tells us, “It is difficult for girls to find a good room because we have to be assured of many things, and obviously, when my male friends search for a room, they find it easily and for a lesser price. Even though the apartments of my male friends always look like a hurricane just hit it, the landlords don’t seem to care about these things.”
“I don’t understand this whole issue. You have to rent a room, rent it out to anybody who wants it. Why are people gender-biased? For me, finding a room in Noida was a horrible experience. After seeing about 40 rooms, I finally settled for the one I’m in currently living in. Girls look for perfection and if landlords have a problem with that, we can’t help it,” says Tanuja Chattopadhyay, a freelancer who lives in Sector 56.
Samardeep Samantray, who works in an MNC and lives in a 2 BHK with his three other friends says, “We are a group of boys living together. When my female friends visited my flat, they pointed out things like some tap not working or a dysfunctional switch. Before that, none of us bothered about it. Girls are more particular. May be that is why landlords prefer boys.”
Smriti Aggarwal, a software engineer, who lives in a single room says, “For a girl, her room is a place to unwind and relax, but guys consider their room only as a place to crash. Because the landlords have to arrange a guard or hire maids, they also charge more from us. My male friend who used to live in this room before me, used to pay only `6,000. But when he left and I shifted here, the landlord asked me for `8,000 and he justified it by saying that he has to ensure my security. I think it was quite a bizarre reason to increase the rent.”