Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence

by Shrayana Bhattacharya

Where are we now? The child sex ratio, measuring the number of baby girls born for every thousand baby boys, has dramatically declined from 964 in 1971 to 918 in 2011. Women’s literacy levels have increased, but more men are literate and men study many more years than women. The consistent wage gap between men and women, and declining women’s employment, show that men are able to earn far more financial independence from their education. Despite how modern the fashion and language of young urban Indians might seem, despite the number of luxury brands present in Indian shopping malls, and activism on social media, women’s employment rates have steadily retreated to the same levels as in the 1970s. Nearly all women in India still depend on men or family money for their living.