Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Working women and students in the federal capital are facing hardships capital due to lack of accommodation facilities and hostels.

Working women hailing from different parts of the country, have to face the first major challenge of finding a suitable place at a reasonable rate with at least having basic living facilities.

Palosha, who came to Islamabad from Peshawar for a job on Wednesday said, she was living in Islamabad for the last two years and during this time she had changed a dozen of hostels in search of a tension-free place.

She said, “I found it a gigantic task to find a comfortable place for living”, adding that lack of appropriate living places also created many physiological, cultural and social problems for working women.

“Living in a hostel, one has to adjust in a changed atmosphere and find hosts of problems like non-cooperative roommates, unhygienic food and substandard accommodation”, said Miss Uzma a student of Pharmacy.

She said that it was a challenging task to adjust with roommates with different temperaments and cultural backgrounds.

“However, I have learnt how to accommodate such people”, she added. Two other students, also said they experienced a lot about society and how to make adjustments with different people while living in a hostel.

“There are lots of problems, a working lady faces in a male-dominated society while living alone in a new city,” Aliya pointed out.

Many girls also complained about lack of recreational facilities like television, library, computer, games, playgrounds in hostels.

“Mostly a small room where only one bed can be placed is filled by three floor beds while no cupboards are provided to girls”, Rimsha, a student said.

Yasmeen and Sanobar, two students of a private college said that they lived in small overcrowded cubicles because they had no other option.

They said rents of private working women hostels vary within the twin cities. They range between Rs. 11,000 to 12,000 but the problems are the same everywhere.