Saifullah Sani
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Researchers who used assumed identities and tried to rent homes in and around the Indian capital say they found evidence of discrimination against Muslims and lower-caste Hindus by landlords.
Economists Saugato Datta and Vikram Pathania responded to online real-estate ads using names associated with different religions and castes.
They found landlords were significantly less likely to answer applicants with Muslim and lower-caste Hindu names than those with upper-caste names.
“This points to a significant disadvantage faced by Muslim applicants,” the pair wrote in a study published by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research. Muslims they said needed to “expend significantly more effort to find housing.”
India’s constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. However, lawyers say, there is a grey area when it comes to discrimination practised by landlords over their private property. Courts have previously struck down dietary and religious restrictions imposed by apartment co-operatives.
Still, segregation along religious and caste lines remains a feature of Indian life. Some upper-caste landlords will only rent to vegetarians out of concerns for ritual purity.
Mr. Pathania, a senior lecturer at the University of Sussex, said one hypothesis is that Hindus, who revere cows, discriminate against Muslims because they are allowed to eat beef. Restrictions on beef consumption have become a politically charged issue in India, now governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has deep roots in Hindu nationalism.
Discrimination may also stem from a perception among upper-class Hindus that Muslims and lower-caste Hindus belong to a lower income strata, Mr. Pathania says.
Many scholars believe Indian Hindus and Muslims began living separately after partition, when India and Pakistan were separated in 1947 and religious riots followed across the country. For safety and other reasons, people from both communitiesstarted living in neighborhoods where their communities were in a majority.
“A sense of fear within the minority exists,” be it Muslims or Hindus, says Shashikant Pandey, a political scientist at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Uttar Pradesh.
Even middle or upper-class Muslims prefer living in neighbourhoods where their communities form the majority even though infrastructure levels there may be poor, says another study.
Discrimination isn’t just an Indian problem. In the U.S., a Harvard study showed landlords discriminated on the basis of race even for short-term rentals.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/...rds-discriminate-against-muslims-study-finds/
Economists Saugato Datta and Vikram Pathania responded to online real-estate ads using names associated with different religions and castes.
They found landlords were significantly less likely to answer applicants with Muslim and lower-caste Hindu names than those with upper-caste names.
“This points to a significant disadvantage faced by Muslim applicants,” the pair wrote in a study published by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research. Muslims they said needed to “expend significantly more effort to find housing.”
India’s constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. However, lawyers say, there is a grey area when it comes to discrimination practised by landlords over their private property. Courts have previously struck down dietary and religious restrictions imposed by apartment co-operatives.
Still, segregation along religious and caste lines remains a feature of Indian life. Some upper-caste landlords will only rent to vegetarians out of concerns for ritual purity.
Mr. Pathania, a senior lecturer at the University of Sussex, said one hypothesis is that Hindus, who revere cows, discriminate against Muslims because they are allowed to eat beef. Restrictions on beef consumption have become a politically charged issue in India, now governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has deep roots in Hindu nationalism.
Discrimination may also stem from a perception among upper-class Hindus that Muslims and lower-caste Hindus belong to a lower income strata, Mr. Pathania says.
Many scholars believe Indian Hindus and Muslims began living separately after partition, when India and Pakistan were separated in 1947 and religious riots followed across the country. For safety and other reasons, people from both communitiesstarted living in neighborhoods where their communities were in a majority.
“A sense of fear within the minority exists,” be it Muslims or Hindus, says Shashikant Pandey, a political scientist at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University in Uttar Pradesh.
Even middle or upper-class Muslims prefer living in neighbourhoods where their communities form the majority even though infrastructure levels there may be poor, says another study.
Discrimination isn’t just an Indian problem. In the U.S., a Harvard study showed landlords discriminated on the basis of race even for short-term rentals.
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/...rds-discriminate-against-muslims-study-finds/
