BHUBANESWAR: Despite awareness campaigns, COVID patients and people being advised to stay in home quarantine are facing hardships in rented accommodations owing to the prevailing stigma attached to the ailment. Besides the virus or its fear, tenants in Twin City are finding it difficult to overcome another set of new stumbling blocks - wary landlords getting abusive, threats to vacate the property and non-cooperation during the isolation period.
The friendly-neighborhoods are turning into frosty zones of irrationality and bias, shrouded in stigma. A research scholar of Utkal University, Smrutirekha (name changed) and her 24-year-old COVID positive brother alleged harassment by their landlord in Satya Vihar area here last week. The brother, who is also suffering from typhoid and dengue, was rushed to a private hospital in the City from Mayurbhanj on August 13. After being discharged from the hospital two days later, the duo went to their rented accommodation at a double-storey house in Satya Vihar. On August 16 night, they were informed through the Government helpline that the brother had tested positive for Covid 19.
The next day, a team of health officials, BMC staff and police reached the locality to inspect the accommodation and conduct contact tracing. “They advised home isolation for my brother since we had separate sanitation facility. Also, the landlord stays in different floor. Though the landlord didn’t object at that time, he started creating troubles as soon as the officials left,” she added. Apparently, the landlord forced them to vacate the facility on multiple occasions through various means over the next three days. Complaints were made to the Covid Sachetak and also BMC officials.
When they called the landlord, he would either not respond to call or give them fake assurance, she alleged. On Wednesday afternoon, the landlord allegedly snapped water supply. “They didn’t respond to our pleading for around two hours until I took to social media to bring my complaint to the notice of BMC. After a BMC nodal officer called them up, they resumed water supply but threatened us to disconnect both power and water supply again,” she alleged. Once again, BMC nodal officers had to intervene late night to urge the landlord from refraining from such acts. “We are shocked and helpless. We don’t know what we will have to face the next moment,” she added.
Though the civic body is conducting awareness campaigns through 62 mobile vans in different wards of all three zones, the effectiveness remains doubtful. Mistrust, sometimes bordering on incredulity, is creating several hurdles for people returning to Twin City from other states. For instance, a tenant in Bomikhal area, who was staying under home quarantine for having returned from her native place in West Bengal, was strictly asked by the landlord not to visit her house again for an indefinite period or bring her parents from there.
A couple of WB had to cancel tickets twice since their landlord in Cuttack refused to let them in. “My husband, who works at an ornament shop in Cuttack, wants to return to his workplace along with me. We requested him that he can lock our separate entrance gate while we stay in 14-day quarantine but he is still not convinced,” said 25-year-old Tina Panja, a native of Medinipore district in West Bengal.