Mumbai’s ethnic modern hub a facade
http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=5909§ion_id=3
CNN-IBN
Posted Saturday , February 25, 2006 at 09:30
Updated Saturday , February 25, 2006 at 13:00 Email Print
Mumbai: Buying a home in Mumbai, which has one of the world’s costliest real estate, is always an expensive affair. But often having money is not good enough.
House hunting is almost always a little traumatic. Especially with a hidden camera. You realize that the most cosmopolitan city in India is not so liberal after all.
CNN-IBN Correspondent Hindol Sengupta pretended to be a Gujarati hunting for a vegetarian building and found apartments where Muslims and Christians are not allowed.
Exclusive footage on the Spy camera shows that there are some builders who are only willing to lease apartments to Hindus and that when people from other communities come calling, they hike the price.
Says an offcial at Mayfair Housing in Vikhroli, “99 per cent of the flats are for Hindus but we don’t say this to outsiders. We do get enquiries from other communities but since we don’t want to hurt their feelings we just hike up the prices.”
Another real estate dealer of Neelkanth Enclave, Ghatkopar says, “We simply don’t take bookings from Christians.”
In this giant melting pot of a city, the reality is that large swathes of area from Peddar Road to Ghatkopar and Kandivili is today only for Gujaratis, only for Jains, only for Hindus.
Human Rights Activist, Teesta Setalvad says, “Ghetto-isation and segregation is one of the most dangerous factors when it comes to building up myths and stereotypes and hatred about one another.”
And guess what? This discrimination is perfectly legal.
Following a plea of a Zoroastrian society last year, the Supreme Court ruled that communal restriction of membership is not a fundamental rights violation.
Little wonder that software engineer Ali Petiwala has unsuccessfully been hunting for a house in newspapers after he was refused flats at two buildings in Khar.
Ali Petiwala, who is a resident of Mumbai says, "It’s my right. When someone takes that away from me, it will hurt me and makes me feel like I am a second class citizen, like I am inferior. "
And the discrimination is not just restricted to Muslims. It’s equally tough for Christians, single women, people from the North East and non-vegetarians to find homes easily.
There are certainly instances of different communities happily coexisting but the point is that as long as the cases of discrimination exists, Mumbai will never be the great multi-ethnicmodern hub that it so aspires to become.
