Rental Homes As Sites of ‘Othering’: Housing Experiences of Indigenous Migrant Women in Bengaluru, India

This paper analyses the phenomenon of rental homes as sites of ‘othering’ where violence is experienced. I study this through the experiences of Indigenous women from Northeast India who live in the southern metropolitan city of Bengaluru. Urban spatial experiences of Indigenous migrant women are shaped by sexual violence (McDuie-Ra, 2012). This is an outcome of the racialised hyper-sexualisation of their bodies in a socio-political context where hegemonic groups have been empowered to pursue marginalisation through violence (Datta, 2016; Bardalai, 2023). Through 74 qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted during fieldwork in Bengaluru, I find that violence transgresses into their rental homes, rendering these as spaces where they experience intrusion, sexual harassment, and physical violations by their landlords. Crucially, landlords are empowered through the rights associated with homeownership (Rutland, 2022). Vulnerabilities of renters are exacerbated by the fact that many rental units in India are in the same buildings where landlords reside (Harish et.al, 2024). This increases the physical proximity between landlords and tenants thus allowing landlords everyday control over rental environments. Furthermore, landlords have significant financial hold over tenants in Bengaluru where it is prevalent practice to charge large amounts as housing deposit, typically the equivalent of 10 months of rent. I find that migrant women establish security within rental homes through diverse acts that are practiced individually to resist the vulnerabilities associated with renting. The paper articulates that it is imperative to move beyond the notion of tenure security to understand housing insecurities experienced by subaltern renters. Crucially, there is a lack of recognition of diverse forms of tenure in a context where housing rights are primarily associated with homeownership (Bhan, 2016). I find that the absence of benefits associated with property rights limits Indigenous migrant women’s ability to ensure housing security with their rental homes.