Women’s India Association hostel: Helping women join the workforce

Affordability and accessibility are the two main factors driving the popularity of the Working Women’s Hostel run by the Women’s India Association at Greenways Road in Chennai

On Greenways Road, near the MRTS station, a clutter of name boards greets visitors to the office of Women’s India Association, a 107-year-old organisation started by a group of eminent women including Annie Besant, Margaret Cousins and Dorothy Jinarajadasa.

For nearly five decades, a working women’s hostel run by the Association on the premises has been catering silently to the needs of hundreds of women who come to Chennai in search of employment (the campus also offers training for women in tailoring and computers).

As a vacant place was available on the campus of WIA, the members of the executive committee availed financial assistance from the Central Government and State’s Social Welfare Department for construction of the hostel building that started in 1974, says a note written in the souvenir released during the centenary year celebration of WIA.

Later, members donated various utility items to make the hostel more user-friendly.

Affordability and its prime location are two main factors driving the popularity of this hostel among young women. Students from Ambedkar Law College, those preparing for civil service examinations and working women in search of a new job were among those who patronised the hostel.

An office staff who has been associated with WIA for 19 years says rent those days was low. Even today they charge only a nominal fee from residents.

Currently, the WIA charges ₹1,250 a month for a single room accommodation excluding the food and a refundable caution deposit.