Women activist slams Hyderabad hotel for denying room to single woman

Bengaluru: Dubbing the Hyderabad incident where a woman was refused a room for being `single` as regressive, women rights activist Brinda Adige on Tuesday slammed the patriarchal mindset of the hotel authorities.

"It is absolutely regressive. As a country, we are talking about being digitalised, going to Mars and there are hotels that do not give rooms to single women. This kind of patriarchal mindset and misogynist outlook and perspective continues everywhere. It is very sad," Adige told ANI.

She further said that Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao who always pitches for women equality should take cognizance of the issue.

"Telangana Chief Minister needs to take this issue very seriously as he always talks about equality and no gender discrimination. If such an incident is happening there, then everybody should hang their head in shame," she said adding that such a hotel should be shut down.

Venting her ire on the hotel, Adige said that the woman should file a case with Consumer Court. The Bengaluru woman was denied a pre-booked accommodation in a Hyderabad hotel as she was a "single lady traveller".

Asserting that she wishes more steps to be taken in regard to facilitate lone women travellers, 23-year-old Nupur Saraswat told ANI that the hotel authorities citing safety reason asked her to go alone in a alien city.

Saraswat said, however, this was an extreme incident, she in the past has experienced that the idea of lone women traveller does not go well in India.

"The hotel denied me a room; the manager blatantly without realising that I am a lone single traveller in a different city brushed me off. The site through which I booked the room refunded my money and apologised, but no back up was provided. I was not even given a pertinent explanation," said Saraswat ."

They asserted that it is for my safety, but had they really cared about my safety, they would have not thrown me out on the streets to wander," she added.