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ABSTRACT
Single Women are those who have crossed the marriageable age and are still unmarried, even though they might have plans to marry. The result of the study reveal that the main causes for remaining single were voluntary (desire for freedom and independence, parental objection, high marital expectation, pursuit of career, disappointment in love) in Delhi (56.3%) and circumstantial (family constraints, loss of parents, disability) in Jammu (53.7 %). By and large, single hood in comparison to Delhi is more involuntary than voluntary. Desires for professional achievements, self fulfillment and personal autonomy are less responsible for single hood than the inability to pay dowry, moral responsibilities of daughter, in the absence of their brothers to support old and sick parents, physical deficiencies and deformities. In other words those women, who chose singlehood were compelled to forgo marriage because of worsening economic and social conditions than by individual choice.
Key Words: Single, unmarried, women, causes, Jammu, Delhi.
INTRODUCTION
"Single is a word used to categorize a vast and divergent group of persons in order to treat them on the basis of one common criterion - their non marriage. A number of definitions have been ascribed to singleness. "Single Women are those who have crossed the marriageable age and are still unmarried, even though they might have plans to marry". (Jethani, 1994) Broadly it is recognized that there are two kinds of single women, those who are single out of choice and those who become single by force.
An estimate of the population of spinsters above 35 years reveals that they account for 3.98% of the total female population in India. Rural urban distribution reveals that their proportion in urban areas is almost double than that of rural areas. Thus urban/rural percentage of spinsters is 6.36% and 3.46% respectively (Krishnakumari,1987). According to Ghadially and Kumar (1986), In India never married urban women constitute 6.23% of the total urban women population above the age of 30.
Marriage has been historically demonstrated to be advantageous however it does not connote that all women are married in this world, because life long single hood has been a significant alternative to marriage throughout the history. In early centuries also though insignificant in number, women remained single. Increases in educational...