Muslims in the city have often claimed that they are denied flats because of their religion. But now, a developer from the community has gone ahead and constructed a building in which flats are being sold only to vegetarian buyers - with Muslims being completely shunned — since the builder believes that vegetarians such as Gujaratis and Jains are the ones with the requisite financial muscle that would help sell every flat.
The website for Fairmont Construction, the realtor concerned, even claims that this building — called ‘Moksha’ and located near Azad Nagar Metro station in Andheri (west) — is a ‘home for the community of Jains’. The realtor, in fact, has gone to the extent of constructing a Ghar Derasar, or Jain temple, in the building to make the residents there feel more at 'home'.
Fairmont Construction claims that the entire area is a Jain locality. Thus, when the firm got the land to construct the building, it decided to target that community, keeping business interests in mind.
Sameer Chunawala, one of the company's directors, said: -"We agree that vegetarians, and especially Gujaratis and Jains, are a huge market to sell flats to. Our project is designed and constructed according to their needs. There are Jain temples in the vicinity and a number of buildings that are only for vegetarians. But we have gone a step further and provided our residents with a Ghar Derasar in the building itself. Even the vaastu of the building is according to their specifications. We also have other luxurious facilities, from a pool to a parking lot to a rock garden, and the building, which has a security system, is a 5-minute walk from Azad Nagar Metro station.”
All these facilities, though, come in the backdrop of a Muslim family being denied a flat in Vasai last month. In the past, too, there have been many cases of developers denying flats to people from certain communities. Some societies, meanwhile, do not entertain non-vegetarian homebuyers at all, regardless of their community.
In November 2013, to give an example, a broker had put up an advertisement saying that a certain society he was selling flats in was cosmopolitan, but no Muslims were allowed to buy flats there. Ironically, the broker himself was from a minority community, albeit a different one.
Then, in July 2015, there was a case involving residents in a Borivali society, which comprised mainly vegetarians, targeting a family for cooking non-vegetarian food.
On the other hand, several property portals in 2015 had advertisements for flats in which only Muslims were allowed.
In the recent past, Jain developers have started constructing Derasars within building premises, with several politicians coming out in the open to criticise this trend. That, though, hasn't stopped the developers, who are of the view having a Derasar simply constitutes proving an extra amenity for the residents.
