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The Indian women calling themselves ‘proudly single’

Damn man I can't live like that, sounds like hell
I just want a daughter of my own SO bad!, I can't imagine willingly staying single for this long into your late 30s , and choosing to have a dog's instead

Nah, you have to be on another wavelength to make sense of it
Whatever makes people happy, bro.

I don't think the world is supposed to be a place where we all fit nicely into socially accepted moulds. Do your own thing, be it rearing your kids, a life on the road with furries, or anything in between.

Live and let be, ratsa !
 
Sreemoyee Piu Kundu

Sreemoyee Piu Kundu is author and founder of Status Single, a community for urban single women in India
By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

In India, girls have traditionally been raised to be good wives and mothers and the most important life goal for them has been marriage.
But a large number of women are now charting their independent solitary path by choosing to remain single.
On Sunday, I attended a lunch gathering of two dozen women at a Caribbean lounge in south Delhi. The room was filled with excited chatter and laughter.
The women were all members of Status Single - a Facebook community for urban single women in India.
"Let's stop describing ourselves as widows, divorcees or unmarried," Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, author and founder of the community, told the gathering. "Let's just call ourselves proudly single."
The women clapped and cheered.
In a country that's often described as being "obsessed with marriage", a lot of stigma still surrounds singlehood.
In rural India, single women are often seen as a burden by their families - the never married have little agency and thousands of widows are banished to holy towns such as Vrindavan and Varanasi.
Ms Kundu and the women in the Delhi pub I meet are different. Mostly from middle class backgrounds, they include teachers, doctors, lawyers, professionals, entrepreneurs, activists, writers and journalists. Some are separated or divorced or widowed, others never married.
Widows of Vrindavan

India is home to 71.4 million single women which includes never married, divorced and widowed women
The wealthy urban single women are increasingly being recognised as an economic opportunity - they're wooed by banks, jewellery makers, consumer goods companies and travel agencies.

Single women are also finding representation in popular culture - Bollywood films such as Queen and Piku and web shows such as Four More Shots Please with single female protagonists have done commercially well.
And in October, the Supreme Court ruling that all women, including those not married, had equal rights to abortion was hailed as a recognition of single women's rights by the top court.
But despite these welcome changes, society's attitudes remain rigid and, as Ms Kundu says, being single is not easy even for the affluent and they are judged all the time too.
"I've faced discrimination and humiliation as a single woman. When I was looking to rent an apartment in Mumbai, members of a housing society asked me questions like, Do you drink? Are you sexually active?"
She's met gynaecologists who've been like "nosy neighbours" and a few years ago when her mother put an ad on an elite matrimonial site on her behalf, she met a man who asked her "within the first 15 minutes if I was a virgin"?
"Apparently it's a question single women are routinely asked," she adds.

But single shaming doesn't make sense in a country which, according to the 2011 Census, is home to 71.4 million single women - a number larger than the entire populations of Britain or France.
This was a 39% increase - from 51.2 million in 2001.
The 2021 Census has been delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but Ms Kundu says that by now, "our numbers would have crossed 100 million".
Some of the increase can be explained by the fact that the age of marriage has risen in India - which means a larger number of single women in their late teens or early 20s. The numbers also include a large number of widows, attributed to the fact that women tend to live longer than men.
But, Ms Kundu says, she's seeing "many more women now who are single by choice, not just by circumstances" and it's this "changing face of singlehood" that's important to acknowledge.
"I meet a lot of women who say they are single by choice, they reject the notion of marriage because it's a patriarchal institution that's unjust to women and used to oppress them."
Sreemoyee Piu Kundu with members of Status Single, giving V for victory signs
I
V for victory signs from the members of Status Single
Her focus on single women is rooted in the discrimination her mother - widowed at 29 - faced.
"Growing up, I saw how a woman, unaccompanied by a man, was marginalised in our patriarchal, misogynistic set-up. She was unwelcome at baby showers and at a cousin's wedding, she was told to stay away from the bride since even a widow's shadow is considered inauspicious."
At the age of 44, when her mother fell in love and remarried, she again attracted the "ire of society" - "How dare a widow not be the sad, weeping, asexualised, pleasureless woman that she's supposed to be? How dare she have agency again?"
Her mother's humiliation, she says, had a profound impact on her.
"I grew up desperately wanting to get married. I believed in the fairy tale that marriage will bring acceptance and take away all my darkness."

But after two failed relationships which were abusive - physically and emotionally - and coming within a hair's breadth of getting married at 26, Ms Kundu says she realised that the traditional marriage where a woman is meant to be subservient to a man wasn't for her.
Her ideal relationship, she says, is one that's not rooted in culture, religion or community but is based on "respect, accessibility and acknowledgement".
It's a reasonable ask and an idea many single women I met on Sunday agreed with.
But India remains a largely patriarchal society where more than 90% of marriages are arranged by family and women have little say in who they marry - leave alone whether they want to marry at all.
But Bhawana Dahiya, a 44-year-old life coach from Gurugram (Gurgaon) near Delhi who's never been married, points out that things are changing and the growing numbers of single women is a cause for celebration.
"We might be a drop in the ocean, but at least there's a drop now," she says.
"The more examples we have of women being single, the better it is. Traditionally, all conversations were about the husband's career, his plans, the children's school, with little thought given to a woman's choices, but those conversations are now changing.
"We are making a dent in the universe."



Not a great trend considering India's population is already very old and with a falling birth rate.
People who were interested in this.

@langda khan
@PakFactor
They had to choose a quarter pounder or an Indian man

Clearly they preferred quarter pounder, by choice my a**
 
@waz - indian population is one of the youngest (50% < 25 and 65% < 35) acc to Wikipedia. What do you mean "already very old"?
 
Muslim societies are theocratic, neither the men or women rule, the word of Allah rules.

For Muslims that is the best solution as their rights are equally granted according to their beliefs.
Equal rights for women in islam, don't delude yourself.
 
I should have posted what when you Said muslim women get equal rights .
Dude why are you so obbssesed with Islam or Muslims

when someone beats the shit outta thier partner in US or in Pakistan or in UK they don't think of Islam

When someone rapes no one thinks of Islam, they do it cause they're psycho

When someone aborts Thier daughter they don't do it cause of Islam they do it cause society incentivizes it

On and frickin on

Man for God sake, what's with the obbsession here?, Everyone comes on this earth to live thier life and depending on your views on afterlife or lack thier off moves on

There's more to the world than your obbsession with relgion or specifically relgion of Islam, live and let Live my dude
 
Nothing wrong with it.

I'm 36, male, and single for life by choice.

There are people who want to get married and have kids. And then there are always minority people who don't.

It's always been like this.
 
Nothing wrong with it.

I'm 36, male, and single for life by choice.

There are people who want to get married and have kids. And then there are always minority people who don't.

It's always been like this.

Less in men than women. That's the trend.
 
Any of these truly “happy and satisfied” ppl don’t/won’t need these parties, orgs or advertise

While some celebrate this in some liberalism, but the real truth is, this is a result of society getting fucked up and now these are the fruits
Now these women are/will be bitter, mental, and will surely next step to alcohol, drugs, mental illness…….they will have successfull careers and money but thats it

Anyone deviates from the true path…….the end isn’t pretty no matter how cool it may appear.
All this is not natural nor healthy.
Decline just like those in athiest western world…..now available in india.
it should be a worry instead of being celebrated
 
Dude why are you so obbssesed with Islam or Muslims

when someone beats the shit outta thier partner in US or in Pakistan or in UK they don't think of Islam

When someone rapes no one thinks of Islam, they do it cause they're psycho

When someone aborts Thier daughter they don't do it cause of Islam they do it cause society incentivizes it

On and frickin on

Man for God sake, what's with the obbsession here?, Everyone comes on this earth to live thier life and depending on your views on afterlife or lack thier off moves on

There's more to the world than your obbsession with relgion or specifically relgion of Islam, live and let Live my dude
Wha ji wha, you can talk about others and someone points fingers at you suddenly it becomes Islam, I only point fingers on factually incorrect statements.

I have not even started point out .
 
Nothing wrong with it.

I'm 36, male, and single for life by choice.

There are people who want to get married and have kids. And then there are always minority people who don't.

It's always been like this.
Rora, you said you look like IK , "allegedly"
Than Do it for some youthiya lady, they're complete psychos, I kid you not
They'll hand you Thier property , thier father's property and buisness just to be with a IK lookalike

(Btw I think you said you're originally from swat but don't know if you know Pashto or not, that's how you say it or no? Or I f-ed up the spelling?)

Wha ji wha, you can talk about others and someone points fingers at you suddenly it becomes Islam, I only point fingers on factually incorrect statements.
C'mon I know you dude
Just chill out, tired of your islam this, Muslim that, PC alien makhlooq bana diya hai
 
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