According to Census of India, there was a 39 percent increase in the number of single women—widows, nevermarried, divorced, abandoned, and estranged—from 51.2 million in 2001, to 71.4 million in 2011. With a realistic estimate of 50 million single women in India presently, this demographic can no longer be ignored or swept aside as secondary. But here’s what we don’t talk about enough—that single women are often perceived and discriminated against, both personally and professionally, in urban and rural spaces alike.
As uncomfortable as it may make some, many of these women are choosing to live life on their own terms, consciously staying ‘un-coupled’, and living alone or in familial arrangements of their choice…and they are thriving in their choices. Understanding who these women are, what hurdles they face, and how empowerment can be facilitated for them is the need of the hour. Cosmo asked some of these independent, confident women to share their personal journeys with us.
ADITI MITTAL, Comedian and Writer
“I realised early on that we live in a world where the heteronormative family is considered to be the basic unit of society; where everything from our holidays to our potato chips are sold in ‘family packs.’ I am an adopted child, and I was raised by a single mother who is 68 now, has never been married, or had biological children. So, I did not grow up around a conventional marriage and neither me, nor my family thought it was essential for my upbringing.
The idea that any woman not married is unworthy of a man still persists. A single man’s only fault tends to be that the women he meets are not
