Ranchi may be offering women everything for their progress and prosperity but the authorities seem to have utterly failed to provide hostel facilities to working women as far as Government run accommodation facilities are concerned.
A sizeable number of working women reside in Ranchi and despite the city becoming a hub of commercial, educational and economic institutions in the past 12 years, there is only one Government hostel for working women here.
The lone Working Women’s Hostel of the Capital city of Jharkhand appears like haunted house situated at the heart of the city. It can provide lodging to 102 women and many applications of hostel requirement are pending hence cannot meet up with the demand of working women.
“There is hostel facility for only 102 women in our hostel and for getting hostel one has to wait for really long time and there is no alternate option for waiting list women,” said Manju Kundu, member of hostel committee.
The pathetic condition of the hostel is a tell tale saga. Over 30 years old hostel building is not even equipped with basic amenities like proper drinking water, food and electricity.
“One has to struggle really hard to sustain in this hostel. There is no water supply inside the hostel so we have to get water from hand pump for daily usage and have to cook our food also. The inside condition of the rooms is deplorable because of seepage,” said Indira Birua, a hosteller.
The compound of the hostel welcomes its residents with a huge heap of garbage and animals feeding on it. This unhygienic condition inside may become the source of diseases for its residents hence indicating towards upcoming dreadful condition, inmates said.
life in this hostel is nothing but hardship still women opt for this because of absence of alternate options and affordability.
“We have to review the condition of working women hostel and check if the demands of more working women hostels are genuine. We will take note of it and ask the concerned department to take measures for this situation to help working women,” said Dr Sanjeev Vijayvargiye, Deputy Mayor of Ranchi Municipal Corporation.
Commenting on the issue security of women Jharkhand Assembly Speaker and Ranchi MlA CP Singh said, “I think more such hostels with adequate facilities and security should be built in near future to cope with the accommodation difficulty of working women and prevent them from staying in private lodges.”