She can work and keep herself in good condition. Her life is not dependent on whether she has a man to support her or not.Women and men can go out at night, stay late, party and come back home mostly without any trouble. Unless of course you live in a very dangerous area of the town 🙂
For an Indian women it is an unimaginable concept, to survive without a husband. Its impossible to find a women who lives on her own and doesn’t need someone to take care of her and/or protect her. A woman who is alone is not safe in India. She needs protection from onlookers, other strangers. Men in india are known to be chauvinists. (Of course I am not proud of that part, and please be aware that not all Indian men are Macho-chauvinists.) A women who has gone into great heights all by herself in India is a hard thing to find. There are of course exceptions, and You can find independent strong women in the metropolitan cities. But they too at one point get married, due to pressure put forth by parents.
If a woman in India gets divorced, she won’t get aliments from her husband. The chances of her survival after divorce is pretty minimal. Divorced Men & Women have a much harder time finding a partner for marriage. Parents would have to search for a new partner and arrange marriage from scratch. And marriages are not a cheap affair in India. It would cost a lot of money and time for the parents of the girl. This is the reason many women stay with their husbands, even if there are cases of domestic violence. In india once You get divorced, the society could brand You into a particular category. People assume that women get divorced, because they were not obedient, and didn’t respect their husband… etc etc. Women are supposed to be obedient to men in India. Men take all the decisions in the household and are superior to women. Many a times divorce is not an option. Why would she be homeless or die out of hunger, when she could live with her husband and take care of her child? For her it is too risky.
In my University, i had a teacher who did not get married. She told us that she didn’t feel the need for a man in her life. I remember that she was a nice, and very friendly person. Gladly, many people accepted her. It wouldn’t be acceptable in many parts of India. She was well educated, and things worked out well for her in life. For a man, it is much easier to be single in India. Maybe he had many reasons, that he wanted to stay single. Society would not judge him, or say that he is not normal. If i would have had a sister,(i always wanted to have one <3), compared to me, she would have had more pressure from my parents to get married than i would have had. During the age of 25,26 my parents would have already started looking for a partner for her, and would have pressured her to get married as soon as possible,
Once my Polish friend asked me, if there are unmarried women in India. There was a long pause, and i was not able to give her an answer. She noticed that, there was something wrong and was amused by my 'thoughtful face’. It is impossible for a woman to be not married in India. My face said everything. I was not able to answer the question with a decisive 'yes’ or 'no’, because no one asked me such question before. It felt so alien to me at that moment.