For foreign and Northeast students, accommodation still a big issue

About 3,368 foreigners have applied for admission to the Delhi University this year, but no arrangements have been made for their accommodation as yet. The university has reserved five per cent of its seats for foreigners, but it can accommodate just 78 female students in its International Students House for Women in Mukherjee Nagar, leaving others to fend for themselves.

With Africans facing a series of racial attacks, a large number of students from the continent claimed that landlords in the city were reluctant to rent their rooms to them. Some landlords openly refuse them and others demanded double the rent that they charge Indian students.

According to the Foreign Students’ Registry, currently 1,340 students from 90 countries are studying in the Delhi University. Of these, 48 students are from Africa. This year, the university received as many as 428 applications from 35 African countries.

Twenty-three-year-old Heanyi Diabete from Uganda arrived in Delhi last year to seek admission to Delhi University’s Hansraj College. He did not anticipate facing a harrowing experience while searching for accommodation — he was either turned away or asked to pay an exorbitant rent. “I went to look out for a boy’s PG in Munirka and the landlord shamelessly asked me for Rs 15,000 rent. I knew he was charging me more, because I was an African and he thought he could easily make a fool of me. But I clearly said no to him. On my way back, I saw an advertising banner of the same PG displaying rent that was half of what he had demanded from me,” says Faculty of Arts student Amy Busto from Ivory Coast.

However, foreigners are not the only ones facing prejudice, students from the Northeast, who come to the capital in hope of quality education, also end up battling similar biases.

Fifteen Delhi University colleges offer hostel facilities, like Daulat Ram College for Women, Kirori Mal College, Sri Ram College of Commerce, S.G.T.B. Khalsa College and Indraprastha College for Women. However, many of these hostels too are not fully functional — IP College hostel has been closed for renovation and the Hindu College hostel is not functional due to a controversy over the rules set by the administration.

The shortage of hostel rooms leaves a large number of outstation students scrambling for accommodation outside the campus.

“We are uncomfortable in staying in flats. There is Northeastern Women’s Hostel for us, but I did not manage to secure a seat and then I had to look for this flat. I feel helpless when other students pass lewd comments, like Chinki,” said a student from Meghalaya, who lives in Krishna Nagar.

Adding to her views, Timothy Buragohain from Nagaland, a second year student of Deshbandhu College, said, “Like Northeastern Women’s Hostel, the university needs to provide some alternative accommodation for boys too. The landlords are hardly ready to provide us with rent agreement.”

Places like Malviya Nagar, Khirki Extension, Bhagwan Nagar and Munirka in South Delhi, and Mukherjee Nagar, Kamla Nagar in North Delhi are major urban ghettos where both Northeastern and African-origin students and working professionals live together. In 2014, Khirki Extension was in the limelight after former city law minister Somnath Bharti carried out a midnight raid and alleged that Ugandan nationals had turned the area into a den of prostitution and drugs. Following the incident, the number of Africans living in Khirki Extension has gone down considerably.

Joyce Mankande from Congo, who resides in Khirki, expressed concern that their lifestyle is seen with suspicion. “The raid was like an emotional trauma for us. My siblings and me had just entered that place a few days before that raid took place,” said the third year student of Miranda House.

In a hope of finding less hostile neighbourhood, students and other professionals from Northeast and Africa have also formed a ghetto in the serpentine lanes and bylanes of Krishna Nagar and Arjun Nagar. “Staying within own community is nothing more than a ghetto. We even decided to move out, but when my brother looked for a flat, he was bluntly told on his face that they don’t rent out to Africans,” Joyce added.

On the contrary, property dealer Sachin Lohia said, “We have the same process for all the students, no matter where they are from. Our main task is to do police verification and ask them to complete all the formalities. It depends on the student to either sign the contract with the owner till the tenure they want to stay or renew after every 11 months.”