Samia (name changed on request), a student of Bangalore University from Bangladesh, arrived in Bengaluru in 2019 for her postgraduate course, but had a harrowing experience trying to find a suitable accommodation.
“As a girl, a hostel would be the safest place for me. But I had no contacts when I arrived. I spent the first few days in a hotel, but it was getting to be expensive. Later, I shifted to a paying guest (PG) accommodation, but the food was a real problem,” she recalled. After falling ill, she decided to shift to a rented house, but had to wait for a long time to save enough for the deposit.
A sizeable number of foreign students come to Bangalore University (BU) each year to pursue their higher education, but the lack of hostel facilities poses a huge challenge for them.
