In the media
Delhi homeowners shut doors on Muslim tenants – UNU-WIDER study makes the headlines

'Researchers who used assumed identities and tried to rent homes in and around the Indian capital say they found evidence of discrimination against Muslims by landlords.’

Several media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, The Indian Express, and Huffington post discussed the findings from UNU-WIDER’s recent Working Paper ‘For whom does the phone (not) ring? Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India’ by Saugato Datta and Vikram Pathania.

Based on an audit study conducted using a house-renting portal, Datta and Pathania find that a Muslim applicant must respond to 45 listings to receive 10 landlord callbacks, while an upper caste (Hindu) applicant must respond to only 28.6 listings to receive the same number. In other words, Muslims have to apply to 60 per cent more houses than upper-caste Hindus to achieve the same number of responses. Further, Muslims are even more disadvantaged when applying for single-room apartments.

The authors suggest that there needs to be more awareness around this problem to help create a clear legal framework for preventing discrimination. 

Read the articles

The Indian Express, May 18, 2016: ´Delhi homeowners shut doors on Muslim tenants: UN varsity study’

The Huffington Post, May 18, 2016: ‘UN Study Finds Muslims Have A Harder Time Renting Homes In Delhi Than Others’

The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2016: ‘Indian Landlords Discriminate Against Muslims, Study Finds’

Frontline, July 8, 2016: ‘Discrimination in housing’

The WIDER Working Paper ‘For whom does the phone (not) ring? Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India is part of Discrimination and affirmative actions - what have we learnt so far? project.