Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, February 10
With the rise in number of women employees in offices and factories, the demand for setting up a women’s hostel is growing in the city.
Rachna Singh Chaudhary, HR head of a leading city-based pharmaceutical company, said the holy city was expanding in different areas and its culture was witnessing a change with people from different regions of the country coming here with their professional skills. A large number of this workforce comprises women who need a safe, secure and conducive environment.
Rachna, who is from Noida, has been staying here for the last two years. She says since there is no women’s hostel, she has been staying here on rent. However, she found professionalism missing in most landlords here. Better accommodation is the most elusive thing here, she averred.
The value of women’s hostel is also keenly felt by Neha of Kalka who recently joined a marketing team with a local unit. “It is extremely tough for a newcomer to find affordable housing in a new city.” She added that locating suitable housing was an uphill task and the cost of living for a person was between Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per month. If there was a women’s hostel available here, then it would have been convenient to stay there, she felt.
There is also need for a stay-house for women in industrial workforce who come to work in factories from remote villages. Maninder Kaur, an industrial worker, said her village was situated in Ramdas border area and it was not safe sometime to travel back home late in the evening. In that case, she could stay at a women’s hostel if it was available. However, no such facility for short stay is available in the city, she said.
Krishan Kumar Sharma, an industrialist, said there was no women’s hostel for industrial workers in the district. Outstation women workers have to stay in different parts of the city. The need of the hour is to raise a women’s hostel to extend a helping hand to at least those women in the workforce who are visiting for the first time here with bag and baggage but have no stay facility to rely on. Women’s hostel for a short stay, regulated paying guest (PGs) accommodations with professional standards along with health and security facilities were the need of the hour, he pointed out.
