No rented rooms for bachelors, especially for Non-veg guys

Hyderabad, January 21: Nowadays, Rented homes for bachelor s is becoming like an impossible task(Either for women (or) Men. If you are a single person who eats meat and are looking to rent a house in the city, there is a good chance that you will be turned down.While it s no secret that unmarried professionals (mostly women) on the house hunt are met with multiple challenges, a recent survey has reiterated this unfortunate reality - landing a rental accommodation particularly for the migrant community is no mean task.Piloted by NestAway, a popular online home rental network, the `Ease of Settling In survey was conducted across Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad and the NCR. The majority of the 3,000 respondents, between 21 years and 31 years of age, were single individuals.Listing out some of the biases that urban migrants face while house hunting in these cities, the report stated: "Many people (19%) found being non-vegetarian is a big issue while looking for a house. Not surprisingly, coming close to the food issue was the relationship status at 17%, which prevented people from getting a house on rent."The other discriminating parameters include place of origin, physical appearance and religion, and caste. "Basically, if you eat non-vegetarian food and haven t married yet, it s going to be hard for you to find a home to rent in India," the NestAway report `Ease of Settling In concluded.The working-class in Hyderabad couldn t agree more."It took me two months to find a house in the city. The fact that I was single and happy was my biggest disqualification. In fact, after a point my broker suggested that I lie and tell them that my parents living with me," said Prateeksha Sahani, who came to the city three years ago, with a job in public relations in hand.While the situation, realtors, and tenants say, is particularly tough in the `older parts of the city - Punjagutta and beyond, towards Secunderabad - finding a rented house in pockets of `hi-tech Hyderabad too (along with the IT corridor) can be challenging at times. "I was appalled when the owner of an apartment within an upscale gated community in Chandanagar told me that he wouldn t lease his home to a single, north-Indian girl.His reasons: They ll get men and cook meat. I had thought Hyderabad was far more progressive," said Sikha Sharma, who eventually settled for another house in the same area.For men too, the going is tough. Especially with house owners worried about the "company" single boys keep."It is tough to judge the character of boys. They consume alcohol and are unhygienic," a house owner from Punjagutta said. The particular apartment, recently, closed its doors on the unmarried.