KOCHI: With hostels transforming from being service-oriented to money-oriented, women coming to Kochi find that there is no place for them to stay in peace. Unclean water, awful food and unhygienic living spaces are the most common problems faced by those who stay at various private women’s hostels in the city. “The water provided by our hostel is highly polluted. It causes rashes and a lot of other skin ailments and also hair loss. Sometimes we even find dead insects in it!” said Athiti S, an inmate of a private hostel in the city. “When I enquired with the warden, she said it was the water supplied by the corporation. But another staff member in my hostel revealed that the water was actually pumped from the hostel’s borewell and that explained the impurity,” she added. The majority of hostels also charge the inmates for food regardless of whether they eat from the hostel or not. Neena Suresh, another hostel inmate, said that though she does not eat from her hostel owing to the poor quality of food, she has to pay `1,500 as ‘mess charges’ every month.“The hostel would not allow me to stay if I refuse to pay that much money. The authorities told me that if I was exempted, everybody else would follow suit and they would have to close down the establishment,” she said.But some of the hostels go one step further and even refrain from giving proper receipts for the fees paid. “A major issue with my hostel is that the receipt does not reveal the full fees; only half of it is shown. When some of us asked for the full amount to be shown on the receipt, the hostel authorities asked us to look for other accommodations if we could not adjust,” said Priyanka R, who stays at another private hostel. She added that she and her friends did not lodge a complaint for fear of being thrown out of the hostel.
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