Ayah denied flat by ‘respectable’ neighbours

Kolkata: After two decades of toil, Archana Bera has realised that money cannot you help you choose your neighbours, even in a ‘progressive' city like Kolkata. The 55-year-old ayah has been denied a flat in Dhakuria — a popular residential locality in south Kolkata — because the other apartment owners did not want a "maid" as a neighbour.
Cheated of her dream home — for which she saved every paisa in her youth, worked extra hours and even travelled to Mumbai, Odisha and Delhi— she refuses to give up."The promoter lied to me and secretly sold the flat to my neighbour. It's illegal and I refuse to accept this injustice. All my life I have worked hard for a shelter of my own. Now that I have got one, I refuse to buckle under pressure and give it up. I believe I have earned the right to live with so-called respectable people," said Archana, who has been in Kolkata since 1978.
Archana had booked the modest 375 sqft flat in KP Roy Lane in 2013 and paid Rs 7.98 lakh to the promoter. Last month, just as she was preparing to move in, she learnt to her horror that the apartment had already been registered in the name of her next-door neighbour. The reason: the other flat-owners apparently refused to share space with a domestic help. The promoter had been assuring her since February that the flat will be registered in her name, she said. But when she went looking for the promoter for registration, some locals at KP Roy Lane told her that her apartment has been registered in another flat-owner's name. Archana couldn't find the promoter and went back. TOI could not trace him on Thursday.
"I sought help from the local councillor and contacted a lawyer. They advised me to enter the flat. With the help of some local youths, I did so on June 12," said Archana. Her neighbour refused to accept this and called police. She was allegedly threatened in the presence of cops. "The man shouted that I would be thrown out unless I vacated the flat. I didn't open my door," said Archana. Since that day, she has been living at the flat intermittently, often spending the nights with her sister who lives nearby. "I feel insecure because the neighbour has been abusing and threatening me. But I will not yield to pressure, come what may," she said.
Archana's lawyer Dipti Bose said some people from nearby buildings have joined hands to throw her out. "They believe that sharing the neighbourhood with a domestic help will hurt their status. Some of them approached me to drop the case. But I told them that ours is a democratic country and she has every right to buy the flat and live there," said Bose, adding that the promoter had accepted Rs 75,000 from her as part-payment in February, after registering the flat in another person's name. "This is a case of fraud," said Bose.
"Her neighbour was angry when he came to know that his next-door neighbour is a domestic help. He connived with the promoter to oust her from the building," said a neighbour. Archana, however, is proud of her profession and said: "I have purchased the flat with my hard-earned money, just as the rest of the people in this building. I have every right to live here."
The incident proves that there is still no respect for professions perceived to be lowly, says sociologist Prasanta Ray. "In our society, domestic helps have never been given their due respect. But when one does the same job in a five-star hotel, he or she is hailed as a successful professional. While this is hypocrisy, the attempt to get this lady ousted from the neighbourhood is even worse," said Ray.